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Screenwriting Help: How To Keep Your Script Out Of The Trash

screenwriting help

Are you looking for your next Four-Quadrant natural disaster, Sci-Fi movie? I have an idea that will blow you away. It’s about the end of the universe and involves spaceships and aliens and zombies and disease and it includes a love story. Please email me back today because this is going to make BILLIONS! And I can only wait a few minutes for your response before I pitch this to someone else.

Should You Write Screenplays That Rewrite History?

screenplays that rewrite history

A New York Times article stated that the producers of the Lincoln film are faithful to history—except for the part about vampires. The premise is that vampires killed Abe’s grandfather and mother so he vows to kill all the evil beings. And he wears a really cool long coat in which he can hide vampire-slayer weapons.

How To Write A Screenplay You Can Produce (Yourself)

Write A Screenplay

Listen. If you’re an ambitious writer, I’m going to tell you a secret. There is no better feeling in the world than the day you stop sending query letters and instead, you start producing your own work. For years and years, you have dreamed about seeing your work on the big screen. You know you’re good. So why ask for permission?

Aspiring screenwriter: Go Hollywood or go indie?

go indie

Because I’ve written a few books about screenwriting I sometimes get questions from people just starting out on their careers. One query that has started coming up more often recently is whether it’s better to chase the Hollywood dream or get involved with indie films, including ones made for the web…

How to apply “show, don’t tell” in screenplays

I have a fairly large collection of “pitching sessions from hell” stories, but there was one that stands out because I blew it—afterward. This was early in my career, and actually the pitching session itself went great. The executive loved the idea and commissioned a script for a TV movie. How to apply “show, don’t tell” in screenplays…

Write Screenplays From The Heart

I see that there’s a one day workshop being offered with the pitch, “Who better to teach you to understand characters than EXPERT BEHAVIOR ANALYSTS?” It’s not my intention to diss the people offering the workshop (which I also why I’m not going to name them)—they are both screenwriters as well as Expert Behavior Analysts and sound like a couple of smart guys with credible credits.

Screenwriting: Why Kim Cattrall got mad at me

If you’re writing a script to be read by someone who is possibly going to buy it, you want to make it as easy and entertaining as possible. Yes, it’s easy to overdo the parentheticals, ideally your dialogue itself suggests how it will be delivered. But when it helps, go ahead. A sarcastic remark from an actress is not too high a price to pay.

Are screenplay contests worth entering?

I’m pretty skeptical about script contests as a way to further your career. There are success stories but I think they’re the exception. So I was interested to read the view of Chad Gervich on the Script website. He says that winning a script rarely gives you the edge