Posted on May 3, 2010 in Story | 1 Comment
Stories are stronger when characters are moved by the events; credible emotional reactions allow the audience to connect more deeply with the work. But if a writer gets carried away with emotion, he’s apt to sacrifice plot momentum. Here are some ways to keep the train of events on track and moving, and still get to the emotional stations.
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Posted on April 24, 2010 in Story | No Comments
by Martha Alderson, M.A.
If you make explicit what you already know intuitively about the structure of movies and stories, you’ll have yourself a conscious plotting tool. The rhythm of story is in all of us right now, especially for those who were read to as youngsters and continue to read today.
Storytellers often intuitively tap [...]
Posted on November 21, 2009 in General Screenwriting, Story | 1 Comment
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 that great stories communicate simple [...]
Posted on November 13, 2009 in Story | No Comments
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 thrive on the excitement of [...]
Posted on November 11, 2009 in General Screenwriting, Selling Your Script | 3 Comments
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 miles from being High Concept.
Others [...]
Posted on October 29, 2009 in Selling Your Script | 2 Comments
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 know and use Hollywood’s central [...]
Posted on October 16, 2009 in Story | No Comments
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 article, we will examine the [...]
Posted on October 12, 2009 in General Screenwriting | No Comments
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 or two in the past [...]
Posted on September 30, 2009 in Story | No Comments
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 from the table and DOES [...]
Posted on July 30, 2009 in Story | No Comments
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 in bed, Tolstoy’s epic historical [...]
Posted on July 13, 2009 in Story | No Comments
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 Iliad and The Odyssey, The [...]
Posted on June 22, 2009 in Story | 1 Comment
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 of the story so that [...]
Posted on May 13, 2009 in Story | No Comments
by Martha Alderson, M.A.
An agent flings a promising work against the wall. When asked why, she rages about all the times she has read entire manuscripts only to be disappointed in the end. She softens as she explains how, by the time she reaches the final quarter of the story, she longs for the work [...]
Posted on April 12, 2009 in General Screenwriting | 2 Comments
by Stan Williams, Ph.D
I hate writer’s block, and I’m sure you do, too. If you’re like most writers you have a file drawer full of stories started but never completed. The ideas were great, or so you thought. They kept you awake far into the night pecking them out. Now, they languish in [...]
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Posted on October 22, 2008 in General Screenwriting | 1 Comment
The most important bit of writing advice for the beginning writer, every scene you write needs to be a situation, no exceptions. You must create interest before you can accomplish anything else, and situations create interest. The two basic ways situations emerge: circumstance and strong character need.
…Talking about drama is not the same as drama…
…The [...]
