flying wrestler
thoughts on screenwriting from writer-producer erik bork
Out of the Bottle
I see a lot of scripts these days where the writer initially depicts the main character as kind of a selfish jerk. This is on purpose, because they...
Changing the Game
In any story, the problem gets worse in the middle for the main character. Or at least it gets more complicated, more difficult, more dangerous,...
Dude with a Problem
They’re trying to kill me! That’s what’s happening in the most misunderstood of the ten “genres” in Blake Snyder's Save the Cat books. "Dude with a...
Character Introductions
One of the most frequent notes I give on scripts is one I’ve given so often that I’ve created a macro for it on my computer. All I have to press is...
Institutionalized
When developing a screenplay (or series) idea, I’m always looking for what the main problem is. The one big problem that is really hard to solve,...
Golden Fleece
A “team” goes down a long “road” in search of an important “prize." These are the key elements of the movie genre that Blake Snyder's Save the Cat...
Rite of Passage
My favorite thing about Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat screenwriting books is his theory that successful movies tend to each fall within one of ten...
The 8 Story Problems
There are only so many types of situations a human being can be in, that are big and relatable enough to base a movie on. As I see it, successful...
Series = Ensemble
When coming up with an idea for a television series, and writing a pilot script, writers often make the mistake of approaching it like a feature....
The 20 Script Must-Haves
The things that make screenwriting hard to succeed at are not mysterious. They're just not easy to achieve. Successful scripts differ from...
Degree of Difficulty
I often say that a good story idea focuses on one big problem that it takes the whole story to solve. What that means is that the problem has to...
What are the stakes?
It's a constant question producers, agents and executives will ask: What are the stakes? And it's maybe the most common thing that causes a script...
