We often find ourselves with characters that seem a bit familiar, but are hard-pressed to find a way to freshen them without losing their essence. One solution that works is to give your characters a pet. This technique can do two key things to improve any character: Make a predictable character seem new, and...
So, I’ve been sitting here for over an hour. An hour and 37 minutes, to be precise. Staring at the screen. Shifting in my chair. Drumming my fingers. Now it’s an hour and 38 minutes. Jerry Seinfeld recently said “Writer’s block is a phony, made up, BS excuse for not doing your work.” Dear...
There are three factors that writers are judged by: Their material, their pitching skills and their knowledge of how the entertainment business works. It’s been my experience that writers know only a fraction of what they should about all three and especially about the latter. As an example, most scripts are optioned not sold....
Paul Chitlik, professional screenwriter and author on the subject, fields a question about writing effective description in your screenplay.
By Jeff Richards A lot of writers are choosing to shoot their own short film scripts as a way to get their name out there. It’s cheap (relatively), it’s achievable (sometimes), and it’s fun (except when it isn’t.) But, if you’re anything like most screenwriters, you have ideas melting out of your brain. And...
by Pamela Jaye Smith MYTHWORK [Based on Pamela's book, Inner Drives: Create Characters Using the 8 Centers of Motivation (chakras) published by Michael Wiese Prods and available at the Writers Store.] ***** Want to create characters that last forever? Learn to use the same character-building tools used by myth-makers and story-tellers throughout the ages. Want...
By Tom Benedek Long live Walter White. And this guy will live forever – on DVD, cable, broadcast TV, any screen near you. The miracle of a compelling TV series, Breaking Bad, hit a bulls-eye after sailing toward its ultimate target for 5 seasons, 62 episodes. But the show wasn’t just about Walt. It...
Writers today are obsessed with structure. I’m not talking about the traditional beginning-middle-end style structure. I’m talking about the micromanagement of page counts as typified by anal retentive “techniques” like “saving the cat.” I’m pretty sure Paddy Chayefsky never thought in terms of a beat sheet, assigning plot points to script pages with a...
I’ll admit that publishing a blog about improvising a film to an audience of professional screenwriters is a little scary… please don’t hate me! This style of filmmaking by no means replaces the need to write screenplays, and should obviously be recognized as an a-typical approach to filmmaking. Truth is: There was a great...
Take control of your career by setting a goal of making your own short film! I’ve done it, and believe me, it is not only fulfilling to see your words come to life, but it’s also an incredible learning experience about writing, the business, and the process of collaboration. Here are some tools I...
