The Five S’s of Screenwriting
by Kate Wright
Working with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jason Miller and the legendary Tennessee Williams offered me a tremendous entrée into the magical world of storytelling. As American icons, their extraordinary talent inspired the world; and as screenwriters, their remarkable ability to work through the visceral process of storytelling taught me […]
Plot Depth through Thematic Significance
by Martha Alderson, M.A.
Plot involves at least three primary threads: Dramatic Action, Character Emotional Development, and Thematic Significance.
Of these three elements, writers are equally divided between those who begin a project by concentrating on the Dramatic Action and those who begin with Character Emotional Development.
Dramatic Action writers tend to […]
High Concept Defined Once and For All
by Steve Kaire
High Concept is a term that’s been confused, misunderstood and misused by writers for decades. The common belief is that it’s any movie that can be pitched in one sentence. A man who battles his wife for custody of their children is one sentence, but it’s a million […]
10 Story Techniques You Must Use to Sell Your Script
by John Truby
The key question that all screenwriters should ask themselves is: how do I write a script that Hollywood wants to buy? Most writers mistakenly think that success is all about connections and star power. Not so. The real trick to writing a script that will sell is to […]
The Essence of Story
by James Bonnet
What is the essence, or heart and soul, of a great story? There are seven critical elements: the change of fortune, the problem of the story, the complications, crisis, climax and resolution of the classical structure, and the threat, which is by far the most important. In this […]
Romantic Comedy Writing Secrets
by William ‘Bill’ Mernit
If creating a successful romantic comedy really was as easy as plugging a couple of stars into a standard boy-meets-girl, boy-loses- girl, boy-gets-girl structure, the market would be glutted with genuinely funny romantic comedies. But can you remember the last truly great ‘rom-com’ you’ve seen? Only one […]
8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life
by Noah T. Lukeman
‘The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn’t thought about. At that moment he’s alive and you leave it to him.’
–Graham Greene
Plot does not magically appear with the creation of a character; Frankenstein’s monster might open his eyes, but until he gets up […]
The Principles of Drama
by Linda Cowgill
Synopsis:
It’s a lesson worth learning early: there’s more to successful drama than just a string of vaguely related sequences.
Stories are how we understand the world. An encounter with a surly bus driver that we relay to a friend at lunch, a fairy tale we read to a child […]
Hidden Structures in Great Stories and Their Enormous Power
by James Bonnet
When I speak of a great story, I mean stories or films that are critically acclaimed and generally acknowledged to be classics. I also mean bestsellers, box office successes, and stories that have lived for hundreds or even thousands of years. So I?m talking about stories like The […]
Ten Ways to Strengthen Your Plot
by Linda Cowgill
Ten things to think about to test the strength of your plot:
1. Develop a clear conflict in the action of your story. Identify the forces of opposition.
2. Your protagonist is an emotional being. Know where your character stands emotionally at the start […]
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