FilmmakerIQ.com

Writing Dialogue: Subtext Speaks

by Penny Penniston
The dialogue scene you’re struggling with? Take the page, crumple it into a paper ball and throw it into the trash can across the room. If you can make the shot, then you instinctively understand everything you need to know in order to write subtext.
Making the shot requires […]

The Curse of Quirky Parentheticals

by Christina Hamlett
When I was a young aspiring writer, I had a strong aversion to the use of “said” in a story. My justification was that it was blah. It was uninspired. It was pedestrian. Why use “said,” I rationalized, when there were so many other words in the English […]

Gandhi’s Screenwriting Tip

Alex Gollner ruminates on Gandhi and how he can apply to screenwriting.

… “Become the change you want to see around you” -An aphorism I seem able to remember most days.
“Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, […]

Action vs. Dialogue

by Jeffrey Alan Schechter
Question: The first five pages of my script contain a lot more movement than speech. Because of this, it’s exceeding the one-page-per minute rule. It just seems to take me more pages to describe action than it does for dialogue. Is this a common problem? Do readers […]

Writing Great Dialogue

by Rob Tobin
There is a myth that the ability to write great dialogue is a gift that can’t be learned and can’t be taught. You’re born with it or you’ll never have it.
One version of the myth goes something like this: you have to have an ear for dialogue in […]