Backstory mostly doesn’t matter. It’s just information used to interpret other information, none of which is dramatic.
Read moreUseful Confessions #6
As I sink down to my forehead in a draft, I start pushing the characters around to make the plot work. Always bad. I “cast” the parts with photos tacked up over my computer. I can look at them and focus on “what would they do?” rather than “how can I make the next thing…
Read more“Premise pilot” – flying wrestler
“Premise pilot” – flying wrestler Emmy-winning film and television writer Erik Bork (HBO’s BAND OF BROTHERS) defines the TV “premise pilot”, and suggests not writing one! A very good case for stamping out backstory in your pilot.
Read moreCHARACTER INTROS WITH CASTING SUGGESTIONS IN THEM
By the way
writerlyn: The deadlines for the Nicholl Fellowship and Scriptapalooza and Page awards and Austin Film Festival and sundance screenwriters lab (okay not so much on that one) and big bear film festival are COMING UP SOON! This is your year! Bring it.
Read moreBad books on writing tell you to ‘WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW’, a solemn and totally false adage that is the reason there exist so many mediocre novels about English professors contemplating adultery. Joe Haldeman (via thegodawfulgatsby) bahahaaaaaa (via youvegotbeauty) …and screenplays about awkward writers moving to Los Angeles. Writing what you know is useful in…
Read moreHOW TO FIRST DRAFT
This post is for mentioning that your first draft should be the wrong length, make no sense and be horrible. Everything that I write in this blog about structure and pacing and character development and arcs and tension and stakes is way too much to deal with in your first draft. The first draft is…
Read moreThe characters write the plot. Their natures do. Norman Rush (via theparisreview)
Read moreSTRUCTURE BY FLAW
Act One: Show how the flaw is a problem. Inciting Incident: Show how the protag will be forced to face the flaw. Act Two Up: Show how the protag attempts to solve the problem without facing the flaw. Midpoint: Show how the protag accepts the flaw. Act Two Down: Show how the protag fails to…
Read moreScreenwriters read screenplays – Joel and Ethan Coen
lifeascaty: The Coen brothers are good at what they do and pretty much unavoidable, so don’t try and ignore them. A Serious Man (2009) Barton Fink (1991) Blood Simple (1984) Burn After Reading (2008) Fargo (1996) Intolerable Cruelty* (2003) Miller’s Crossing (1990) No Country for Old Men (2007) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) Raising…
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