It might be a novel or a short story or a painting or a collage or a poem. You might have a script idea if: It’s about a person who needs to accomplish something difficult. The person has a flaw that gets in the way. Strong forces oppose them. The story and its themes are…
Read moreYOUR THIRD ACT REFUSING TO PAY OFF THE SETUP
HOW DOES PLOT WORK?
Plot happens when a character sets a chain of unforeseeable events in motion with a decision to achieve something of tangible personal importance.
Read moreKEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS
Avoid giving your characters speeches about their feelings in the first act. You can show their feelings in what they do, but conversations about their feels and why they feel that way in the setup are boring. There is so much time in the second act to do this work, after we care. It’s not…
Read moreREALLY HAVE YOUR PROTAG MAKE SOME NOISE
Honestly, if your character can accomplish everything they set out to do without leaving any sign of a struggle…it really wasn’t that important.
Read moreTHERE’S NO THIRD ACT
IMPACT
boojum.as.arizona.edu Spec scripts have this tendency to fall back on dramatic near misses. Like, if Jane found out Pedro cheated, the wedding would be off, but thank goodness that didn’t happen fifteen different times, and here comes the bride. Actually, no. Jane finds out. Impact. Now Jane and Pedro have a megaton of ejecta material…
Read moreLET’S MAKE A DEAL
Be aware of the things that a protagonist admires about himself that are provably false. Then prove it. So, me. I would never change my dynamic, awesome female protagonist into a man. I worked hard on that character, it’s important to the story that she’s a woman, it’s a groundbreaking part an actress would kill…
Read moreSCREENWRITING TEMPLATES
If you beat out movies while you’re watching them to see how they work, you might think there’s something to the whole formula thing. There is, partly. Eventually. But it doesn’t have anything to do with developing your story, or even writing your script. Here’s a story: Writer friend gets a great idea. Whips out…
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