flying wrestler

When I first started writing, people who read my scripts sometimes said they lacked conflict. This drove me insane. I grappled for years to really...

Like many screenwriters I have been influenced by and used the precepts in Chris Vogler's classic The Writer's Journey, where he lays out the...

We writers tend to be obsessed about how our characters change in a story. How they grow. What they learn. Their "inner journey" from beginning to...

I see the 3 stages of a script as follows:

1. Idea/concept
2. Structure/outline
3. Actual script pages

You can probably guess from the title of my book which one I think is most important…

My book THE IDEA: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage, or Fiction is now a course!

For the past six months I’ve been preparing for these two days of shooting the videos for it and am happy to report it’s a wrap!

A lack of character agency can really sink a script. And it's one of the most common key issues I see in movie and TV projects I read. Agency means...

I've saved "Monster in the House" for last in my series of posts about the ten genres in Blake Snyder's Save the Cat books. Partly because it's not...

Writing for television has become increasingly popular in recent years for writers looking to start careers. This makes a lot of sense given that there’s been an explosion of quantity and quality in TV, as well as outlets for original series. Meanwhile many see the feature film business as contracting and becoming less of a viable option.

The opening pages of a script are very important. We all know this. Busy industry readers will tend to put a script down if they’re not grabbed...

Is it a good idea to create character bios? Should they be shared with others?  What should they consist of? I have a love-hate relationship with...

The All is Lost moment in any story tends to come around 3/4 of the way through. It paves the way for one final attempt to solve the main overall...