Posted on April 12, 2009 in General Screenwriting | 4 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 | 2 Comments
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 [...]
Posted on September 23, 2008 in Story | No Comments
How to Create Passion, Suspense, and Other Entertainment Dimensions
by James Bonnet
The entertainment dimensions are the pleasant sensations the audience feels when they experience your story. The most important of these feelings are those associated with the actions of the genre structures. When you isolate the plots and subplots of your story, you isolate actions that [...]
Posted on September 15, 2008 in Story | No Comments
by Linda Cowgill
For many people plot is the same thing as structure. Both deal with designing the story, creating relationships between its elements and developing how action builds to a climax. When you structure a film story, you’re working out the plot to discover the best way of telling it.
~ The Principles of Organization – [...]
Posted on September 10, 2008 in Story | 2 Comments
Dramatic irony, not much written about it, though it appears in characterizations, story structures, scene structures and even lines of dialogue. What is the elusive relationship between dramatic irony and quality?
…Dramatic irony. What is it? I got no clue — says the professional screenwriter. Proving that you can’t escape it even when you don’t [...]
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 4, 2008 in General Screenwriting | No Comments
by Pamela Jaye Smith
What is it that lures people over to the Dark Side?
Your audience wants to find out how people and things go bad, so in your story, be sure to reveal some of how the characters become the way they are — not to excuse their behavior but to get us engaged with [...]
Posted on August 1, 2008 in Interviews | No Comments
by Charles Thomas Samuels
“Encountering Directors”
Paris, September 1 and 3, 1970
The image presented when Francois Truffaut played the principle role in The Wild Child—that of a short, compactly built, but expressionless and ordinary-looking young man in his late thirties—leaves out his most striking features: a smile no less charming than his most charming films and the [...]
Posted on July 27, 2008 in General Screenwriting | 1 Comment
Here you’ll find twenty plots discussed and analyzed –plots that recur through all fiction, no matter what the genre. You’ll learn how a successful plot integrates all elements of a story, and how to use these plots effectively in your own work. But, as Ronald B. Tobias says, “Plot isn’t an accessory that conveniently organizes [...]
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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 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 [...]
