flying wrestler

thoughts on screenwriting from writer-producer erik bork

White Lotus Season 2

White Lotus Season 2

I won't tell you what happens in the finale, if you haven't seen it yet. But you might want to stay off YouTube, Twitter and the internet in general...

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The Crown Season 5

The Crown Season 5

The Crown Season 5 debuted recently on Netflix. I watched the first two episodes and if I didn't know better, I'd say it has new writers who don't...

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Scene Description

Scene Description

At its essence, a script consists of two things: dialogue and scene description (or “action”). The writer scripts what the characters say; and describes what they’re doing and what the audience would see…

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Outlining a Script

Outlining a Script

Outlining a script involves figuring out what happens in every scene before you actually start writing any of them. We screenwriters tend to always...

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30,000 feet

30,000 feet

In focusing on the details, we often lose track of the “30,000 feet” view: the story or series as a whole, and its main impact on a potential audience.

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Final Draft

Final Draft

No version of a script is the final draft.That’s how I recommend looking at it.Yes, I know the most popular script formatting software is called...

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The Dropout

The Dropout

It’s rare that I admire the writing of something so much that I make verbal outbursts about it while watching, annoying the people around me. This...

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I’m a Big Baby

I’m a Big Baby

If you’ve ever gotten candid feedback on a script from me or from other professionals, you might have gone through a variety of emotions afterwards…

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Pick a Genre

Pick a Genre

When I look at a logline for a screenplay, I'm often wanting more information on what the main character will be doing in the second and third act...

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Band-aid fixes

Band-aid fixes

As screenwriters, we're often getting "notes" from others about things that aren't working in our script, at least in the opinion of those giving...

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A Script is Like a Rubik’s Cube

A Script is Like a Rubik’s Cube

After many rounds of notes on the same script, one of my consulting clients once remarked that perfecting a script is really like a Rubik’s cube. He wasn’t wrong.

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Tip of the Iceberg

Tip of the Iceberg

What's in your script should just be the very tip of the iceberg of what you know about your characters and situations. I think I first got this...

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Erik Bork

I’m a screenwriter best known for my work on the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon, for which I wrote multiple episodes, and won two Emmy and two Golden Globe Awards as part of the producing team.

My book THE IDEA: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage, or Fiction was released in 2018.

Click here to e-mail me.

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