I’ve been making the rounds of the screenwriting podcasts, blogs and other venues lately, talking about my new book THE IDEA: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage, or Fiction — which I’m proud to announce has become a #1 bestseller in four different categories on Amazon!
Rather than blog in this space, I’ve been contributing guest articles on other sites, all touching on some aspect of the book’s premise: that the most marketable story or series ideas exhibit seven key characteristics that form an acronym of the word “PROBLEM” (since all stories, at their core, are about a problem).
The folks at Film Courage on YouTube were nice enough to interview me on camera and have started sharing chunks of our discussion on their channel. The video embedded below is a handy introduction to the concept of the book, why I wrote it, and what the “P” in “PROBLEM” stands for:
Film Courage has posted the full interview as well as select clips on how I broke into the industry, the mindset of a professional screenwriter, what is meant by “not enough conflict,” “keeping it real,” and why stories from one’s own life can be hard to make work.
I also sat down for two great podcasts in recent weeks: my friend Pilar Allesandra led me, cheerleader-style, through the seven PROBLEM elements at her “On the Page” podcast, and my pal Ashley Meyers grilled me for his “Selling Your Screenplay” podcast about whether the main character of The 40-Year-Old Virgin really had a “Punishing” enough problem. (The answer is yes!!)
Speaking of friends, the wonderful Jeanne Bowerman, editor of Script Magazine, had me back for her live Twitter #scriptchat, where I outlined the premise of the book and took questions, all in the form of tweets, during a furious one-hour typing session. The transcript is available here.
I’ve discussed the importance of the 7 PROBLEM elements in posts for Creative Screenwriting, Stage 32, and contributed a book excerpt to L.A. Screenwriter. I went deeper into the “Punishing” element for Shore Scripts, and what it means to be “Entertaining” on Bang2Write.
Lastly, reviews have also been coming in, and I’m thrilled to have 48 on Amazon to date, averaging five stars. I also got a nice write-up on Screencraft.
I’m so grateful to everyone who has enthusiastically participated in reading, commenting, asking questions, and generally getting the word out about the book.
More is to come soon, but in lieu of fresh posts here, I wanted to provide some links to where I’ve been!
