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What Is A Story Hook?

Let’s get back to some very basic elements of story, since the past few chapters have been a little head-spinning, deep, and oddly esoteric. Whether you’re writing a pilot, a feature, an epic fantasy novel or a small YA series with some juicy romance, or even if you’re sitting around a campfire enjoying the last few days of warm...
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I Hate to Break It to You, But Your Logline Isn't Working

(Be like Hermione…study, read, practice, be smart.)I am going to vent a little bit in today’s post, but it’s because you all need to hear it. I’ll hold myself back as much as I can. Please remember that I am coming to you with love and positive intention here, I swear.Your logline sucks.OK, so maybe I didn’t hold myself back. I ...
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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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Follow Your Inner Compass

  • Brock Swinson
  • .September 30, 2024
“Follow Your Inner Compass” Richard Tanne on ‘Chemical Hearts’ & ‘Southside With You’:“I’m one of those lifelong film geeks,” joked writer/director Richard Tanne. “I was one of those kids with a lot of creative energy, but didn’t know it at the time, so I channeled it through misbehaving.” Tanne’s parents worked out a system wit...
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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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How To Write A Contained Film

Contained films are restrained stories that have traditionally been limited to the horror/ thriller genre. They are characterized by having few characters (often three to five, sometimes as few as one), no more than one or two main locations such as a haunted house, and a skeleton crew.Most importantly, they are filmed on shoest...
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Your Screenplay or TV Pilot: How Long Should it Take to Write?

Okay, I admit it, I’ve been in denial. I did not think that this blogpost would need writing. Which, let’s face it, is nothing short of stupid on my part because, well, I have this conversation ALL. THE. TIME.Even as I write this, I think to myself: This blogpost is going to be a short one. There isn’t that much to say; the mess...
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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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7 Steps to a Perfect Pitch

In previous posts I talked about theme and how you can use your protagonist’s arc to clarify what your story is about. You can also use this arc as the spine for pitching your story.Knowing how to pitch your script can be a challenge particularly deciding what’s essential information and what you can leave out. Everyone is diffe...
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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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How to Adapt a Script Into a Novel - Part 2

Jumping back into the two-parter about not only how to approach adapting your script into a book, but also why. What is the why? As a little recap - this industry is HARD…when you don’t have a built-in audience. A book - your own IP (intellectual property) can help you create a fan base and therefor help you get noticed.Isn’t ge...
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How to Adapt Your Script into a Novel - Part 1

As you already know, the first 14 Substacks I’ve posted dealt primarily in the breakdown of the structure of a story. I peppered in a few motivating chapters that hopefully fed your momentum as you plowed through. Now is when we get into a much more broad set of topics. This is, in the end, the crux of the screenwriting world. T...
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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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How to Write Authentic LGBTQ+ Characters That Everyone Relates To

Writing for other identities and demographics can be a challenging undertaking when a writer does not belong to that identity group themselves. In the instance of writing for marginalized groups, it’s easy and valid to question if it’s ever okay to write for a character if the writer does not also identify with said group. Conve...
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Story is Story

  • Brianne Hogan
  • .July 13, 2024
Story is Story - Art Holcomb on Screenwriting:When Art Holcomb was eight years old, his maternal grandmother, a poet, gave him a blank book. It was to encourage him to write out his feelings. She also shared with him books by the greats, like Shakespeare and Cummings. By the time he watched A Midsummer Night’s Dream at ten, he w...

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