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Goals: Driving the Narrative

  • James "Doc" Mason
  • .November 18, 2024
As with every story element described in this series, the goal relates directly back to the idea of conflict. To reiterate, in its most basic form, conflict is when someone wants something and another person doesn’t want them to have it.More specifically, narrative conflict is typically when one character proactively pursues a g...
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11 Writing Quotes You Should Take Notice Of (Part 1)

This entry is part 1 of 2 in a series on Writing Quotes.By the time any writer becomes successful, they’ve typically gathered a war chest worth of things not to do. If one is doing it right, you’re writing, reading, listening, and learning a ton of how to and not to write.Let’s see what lessons successful writers have learned.1)...
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So You Finished a Draft... Now What?

RewritingIt’s something we all need to deal with, and there is no getting around it. Rewriting, rewriting, rewriting. In the last post, I talked about writer’s block and, well, how and why writer’s block is pretty much a whole bunch of bullshit, and to again quote Terry Pratchett, “something invented by people in California who ...
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Are Your Scenes Boring? 8 Ways To Change That

  • Staff Writer
  • .November 6, 2024
Nothing makes a reader’s mind wander faster than a boring scene which makes them lose interest in your screenplay and scroll or flip through your pages without actively reading or engaging with them. Here are some creative ways to identify and even rectify that:1) Character StereotypesThe characters are a carbon copy of what aud...
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Writing Morally Gray Characters, Part 2

This article is a continuation of Writing Morally Gray Characters, Part 1. Politics Is A Dirty Gray“Politics is a dirty business, but if you do not do politics, politics will be done to you.” So states novelist Will Shetterly.Many movies and TV series about politics shows the absolute compromising nature of politics. Gray charac...
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Writing Morally Gray Characters, Part 1

When you speak of gray in life, you’re normally talking about a mainly colorless tapestry. But morally gray characters, those considered not good nor bad, neither heroes not villains, are some of the more complex characters you can write. Even more interesting, is a psychological phenomenon that allows our audiences to embrace a...
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"How JT Mollner Used 'Halloween' to Inspire Horror Film 'Strange Darling'"

  • Staff Writer
  • .October 21, 2024
“Strange Darling came to me through an initial image that I saw of a woman running through the woods in distress,” says JT Mollner of his horror film that can be described as a mix of a bloody popcorn wild ride and art.“I’ve read countless stories about serial killers which gave me some inspiration to show a different side of th...
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The Trigger – More Than An Inciting Incident

  • James "Doc" Mason
  • .October 18, 2024
While even the non-writer will recognize that the climax is the character’s final battle, the end of the story, fewer know what to call the start of the story. Remember, there is no story without conflict. Therefore the story starts with a clear conflict. Writers will know the Inciting Incident or Inciting Event is often describ...
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Screenwriters Alfred Gough & Miles Millar Talk “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”

  • Staff Writer
  • .October 16, 2024
Beetlejuice was a playful foray into horror comedy in 1998 depicting the gentrification of family neighborhood Winter River with left-field visionary director Tim Burton at the helm. A follow up film was discussed for over three decades since Michael Keaton first exclaimed “It’s Showtime” as his iconic Betelgeuse character.After...
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Understanding the First Half of Your 2nd Act

Understanding the First Half of Your 2nd Act with Some Help from Harry and Sally:Sequence 5: Let’s Get Into ItYou’re rumbling along on a road trip with your girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, or partner. Let’s just set that stage for a second. You’ve been on the road for a few hours. The high and excitement of hitting the open road ...
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What's All This Talk About 'The Promise of the Premise'?

A New WorldAs I continue this series of daily newsletters, bringing us from one sequence of story structure into the next, I’m going to start this one with a little bit of a set up. It’s something rather simple, but important in that it will hopefully get your brain properly wrapped around this post’s topic – Sequence 4, and wha...
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Navigating Your Story

  • Salva Rubio
  • .September 16, 2024
Since its inception over twenty years ago, the methodology of Blake Synder’s Save the Cat has been as synonymous with storytelling as Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and Syd Field’s Paradigm Worksheet.Many screenwriters can’t help but spot the moment when “Bad Guys Close In”, or the “Dark Night of the Soul” whenever they sit do...
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What is the Most Essential Element to Any Story?

What is the Most Essential Element to Any Story (and is Too Often Ignored by Emerging Writers)?Hint: It's Not the Main Character, nor Structure, or Even a Marketable Hook.The Secondary Character Affect and Core RelationshipWelcome back everyone! You’re reading my fourth Substack post, which leads me to believe that you might act...
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The Set-Up Event

The Difference Between a Set-Up Event and the Inciting Incident + Defining the 2nd Sequence of Your Story:The Set Up EventIf you didn’t already know, I used to have a solo podcast on the ISA website called The Craft. I also released a book on screenwriting a few years back. A lot of these newsletters are in reference to what I c...
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Write Worlds And Characters Actors Want To Play

  • Pen Densham
  • .August 26, 2024
I am convinced that actors with creative intelligence want to play roles that challenge, expand, and refresh their artistic instincts. They want to get involved with films that get noted for Oscar consideration. It’s the job of the screenwriter to create worlds and character roles actors want to play.When stars commit to a movie...
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How Does A Character's Stage of Life Impact Your Story?

What Stage of Life do you feel you’re currently in, and what kind of experience or situation could force you to change? You need to ask the same of your characters.I had an idea that in order to help us understand how to finish a script, discussing the basic structure and make-up of the script could be the simplest way to launch...
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There’s both light and dark.. there’s a lot of dark

  • Annabel Jones
  • .August 11, 2024
'There’s both light and dark.. there’s a lot of dark!' - Black MirrorCharlie Brooker & Annabel Jones on screenwriting levers, satire, and why checking your phone is like smoking. Plus great practical advice for writers! Black Mirror. The term refers to the dark, shadowy image you see of yourself while staring at the unlit screen...
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Dialogue

  • Christopher McKittrick
  • .August 11, 2024
Robert McKee on Dialogue:We spoke to McKee about what made Dialogue a necessary addition to McKee’s oeuvre, what role improvisation should – and shouldn’t – play in crafting dialogue, and why there’s no such thing as writing a screenplay without form.Over the last 20 years, your book Story has been incredibly successful and infl...
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It All Comes Down To Biology

  • Pen Densham
  • .August 4, 2024
Why We Watch Movies – It All Comes Down To Biology:Joseph Campbell became the patron saint of screenwriters thanks to George Lucas famously using his theories when he created Star Wars. Campbell studied thousands of myths, parables, and legends, from all time periods, religions and cultures. In his book, The Hero With a Thousand...
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Dramatic Tension – Don’t Let Them Go (Part II)

  • Patrick O'Driscoll
  • .August 4, 2024
This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Dramatic Tension:Keeping audiences hooked relies on meaningful dramatic questions, yet few stories generate tension on the most meaningful level.Nothing prevents an audience’s boredom like the need to know what happens at the ending. Provided the protagonist has our empathy or interest, th...

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