Posted on September 9, 2008 in Story | 1 Comment
by Howard Suber
Everybody in Hollywood knows the top three rules of screenwriting:
1. Write what you know.
2. Films must have a happy ending.
3. Films must have three acts.
But few people know what these rules all have in common:
They are all wrong.
Rule #1: Write What You Know
There is no writer alive who has not been advised, “Write [...]
Posted on September 5, 2008 in Story | No Comments
by David Freeman
There are many ways symbols that can be used in a movie. Today I will examine one of them.
Alan Ball, the screenwriter of ‘American Beauty,’ makes riveting use of the color red throughout the film. The first time we see Annette Bening, she’s cutting bright red roses.
What does the color red mean in [...]
Posted on September 3, 2008 in Story | No Comments
by Martha Alderson
In real life, some people skate from one success to the next. Others hit a flat-line long before they ever actually die. Unlike people, all story characters suffer both ups and downs throughout the entire story.
These reversals play out in three major plot threads: Dramatic Action, Character Emotional Development, and the Thematic Significance. [...]
Posted on August 14, 2008 in Story | No Comments
by Martha Alderson, M.A.
Most writers end up writing at least twice as many scenes as needed to produce a compelling story. One skill that defines a good writer is the ability to know which scenes to keep and which ones to kill off. As a plot consultant, I developed two visual plot tools to help [...]
Posted on August 5, 2008 in Story | No Comments
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 take this into account? Can [...]
Posted on August 5, 2008 in Story | 10 Comments
by James Bonnet
The three act structure is not a story structure. You can’t find it in myths and legends or other great stories of the past and you can’t find it in nature. So why is it being applied to the screenplay or the story of a film? It’s a good question because it makes [...]
Posted on July 30, 2008 in Story | No Comments
by Jennifer van Sijll
The Case of The Sixth Sense
One has to wonder what Freud would have said, seated in a modern day Cineplex while watching the final credits of M. Night Shyamalan’s extraordinary film, The Sixth Sense. It’s hard to imagine a greater homage to Freud’s concept of the unconscious than its deft exploitation in [...]
Posted on July 29, 2008 in Story | 1 Comment
Of all the great articles on the Wordplay site this one by Terry Rossio & Ted Elliott is my favorite. It gives great insight into building momentum into your story. Reversals, exposition, and creating a compelling world.
…It hit me in the middle of watching the network premier of SCHINDLER’S LIST on NBC… when I [...]
Posted on July 28, 2008 in Story | No Comments
by Leigh Michaels
Can writers take a long honest look at their own writing? The answer is yes, but it’s difficult. When we go back to read the words we’ve put on the page, we not only read the actual words, we relive the emotions we felt as we were writing. We see the characters in [...]
Posted on July 22, 2008 in Story | No Comments
by Jeffrey Schechter
Q: Our reader Sara asks: As a new writer trying to get a handle on what is SEEN ONLY, I find getting my character’s feelings and objectives across … challenging. How much latitude can be taken in such descriptions? What about adjectives and adverbs? I realize one shouldn’t use ‘Kelly’s playful entrance floods [...]
Posted on July 22, 2008 in Story | No Comments
by Martha Alderson, M.A.
Most writers have a preference for one style of writing over another. Some writers are more adept at developing complex, interesting, and quirky characters. Others excel at page-turning action. The lucky ones are writers who are good at creating both the Character Emotional Development plotline and the Dramatic Action plotline. Become aware [...]
Posted on July 17, 2008 in Story | 1 Comment
by Dennis Palumbo
If you saw the season-ending episode of Monk, do you remember the clue that helped catch the killer?
Me, neither.
In the recent thriller Fractured, what was the mistake Anthony Hopkins made that proved he killed his wife?
You got me.
My point, and I do have one, is that often writers think the most important aspect [...]
Posted on July 14, 2008 in Story | No Comments
by Syd Field
At this moment in time, I think we’re in the middle of a screenwriting revolution, a time where screenwriters are pushing the form and craft in new directions. I firmly believe that the traditional way of “seeing things” has changed, and we’re looking for new ways to match our experiences and incorporate the [...]
Posted on July 13, 2008 in Story | No Comments
by John Truby
With a good Action script you can write your own ticket. But Action is the most deceptively challenging genre in Hollywood. What may seem simple and straightforward on the movie screen actually requires careful planning and extremely creative solutions from the screenwriter.
Action films are deceptive in a number of ways. Many people think [...]
Posted on July 10, 2008 in Story | No Comments
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 order to be able to [...]
