When you read scripts for a living as I do, you notice an interesting phenomenon: certain common elements tend to recur in a majority of the scripts that you read in a specific period of time. These common elements can be premises and story concepts (e.g. after never having read a single script about female [...]

One of my consulting clients – a very nice fellow who is just getting started on his very first script – asked me to outline the process of writing a screenplay for him. I was originally just going to jot down a few brief notes, but as I got into it, I found myself developing [...]

Alfred Hitchcock once said that 90% of the effectiveness of his films was determined in preproduction, based on the decisions he made in the scripting, storyboarding, design, and casting phases. I’m of a similar mind when it comes to screenwriting – I think that the success or failure of most scripts is determined in large [...]

The Writers Store’s advice on writing a script is a great starting point for getting your next script off the ground. Read on for Script Reader Ray Morton’s advice. Professional script readers will often claim that they can tell if a screenplay is going to be good or not after reading just a few pages. [...]

I was talking with a writer friend lately about what qualities a person needed to have in order to be a good screenwriter and this is what we came up with: 1. You have to love movies: You’d think that would be a given, but it never fails to amaze me how many people that [...]

A note before we start this month. Lately, a number of readers have been reposting my columns on a number of other websites and in a number of other blogs. While I am certainly flattered that people think enough of my work to want to share it, I need to advise you that this is [...]

There’s been a lot written lately on the decline of the movies as a relevant and vital entertainment medium and –like it or not — it looks like we are living in the last days of cinema as we have traditionally known it. There are three primary reasons for this: The technology is dying: the [...]

Trying to make sense of all of the dos and don’ts of scriptwriting can be very confusing, especially when so many of them seem to be contradictory. Mastering all of the rules can often seem like an impossible task and can cause many people to become discouraged and even consider giving up. Here’s why you shouldn’t.

Readers aren’t trying to steal your creativity. It’s just that if you make the process of reading your script far too arduous and time-consuming, then all you are doing is giving development people — all of whom are always pressed for time and always have a million other scripts to read — an excellent excuse to give up on your screenplay and move on to the next one in the pile.