Success. We dream about it. We lust for it. We wake in the wee hours before our day jobs, as well as burn the midnight oil, to find time to write. Some days, the amount of hours we clock seem endless, but we keep putting ink on paper, believing in our destiny to be writers. [...]
If you make your career as a comedy writer, it’s a good idea to learn how to write funny in a variety of different mediums. That’s especially true these days with new media popping up faster than you can say, “tweet.” Taking as my inspirations such multi-hyphenates as Woody Allen and Steve Martin, I’ve always [...]
First, please allow me to introduce myself: I’m Julie Keck – screenwriter, filmmaker, baker, and one-half of King is a Fink Productions. Second, I’d like to thank ScriptMag and my new boss Jeanne Veillette Bowerman (oh, lord, what have I gotten myself into?) for the opportunity to share my experiences. I prefer fiction, but I’ll [...]
My Balls of Steel column is just over a year old. I’ve taken you on my bumpy ride from pursuing an adaption of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Slavery by Another Name (SBAN), all the way to Sundance. While SBAN is still going strong, I now have a different, more immediate quest – to write and [...]
A while back, I received a rewrite of a script by an aspiring screenwriter that I have been working with for a while now. The first draft was based on a very cool idea and had some terrific elements in it with an enormous amount of potential, but the overall piece had some tremendous problems [...]
When it comes to screenwriting, what’s going on right now in the industry is just an exaggerated version of what’s always been true when it comes to selling a script and making a career out of it. I’m not telling you anything new when I say the best chance you have of selling a script [...]
MacGuffins, villains’ plans, Bellamys, and broomsticks are some of the most common types of plot devices. Do you know how to use them? You have some great characters and a fantastic idea for a story, but how do you keep it moving? How do you keep that story going to page 110 and make sure [...]
I’ve evaluated thousands of scripts for writers, film producers, and contests over the years. Occasionally, after reading a screenplay, I say to myself, “Now, there’s a born screenwriter.” The writer may be a little “green.” He might make some rookie mistakes, such as not knowing how to show the passage of time. He might make [...]
Question: “What are the main differences/similarities between writing a screenplay and a book?” Answer: Having spent 20 years writing plays, TV pilots, that old thing now similar in popularity to the LP called a Movie of the Week (we used to call them MOWs), and then 15 years of writing screenplays, I just completed my [...]
