How to Stress-Test Your Main Character by Adding a Fatal Flaw (The following is a guest post by screenwriter and professor, Aaron Mendelsohn.) Being a stickler about a protagonist's fatal flaw is one of the key ways you'll be able to create and sustain a successful screenwriting career. If you're pretty informal about how you […]
Film dialogue: how to harness the power of your characters' opinions. Film dialogue is like paint on a car. It's the last thing that's put on but it's the first thing everyone notices. And most of the time, people know good film dialogue from bad film dialogue... but if you ask them why one line […]
How to copyright a script the smart way and avoid these 5 legal pitfalls. This is a guest post by entertainment lawyer, Danny Jiminian, Esq. He lets us in on how to copyright a script and other insider legal knowledge no aspiring screenwriter should be without. As if learning how to write a screenplay isn't hard […]
5 proven paths to a screenwriter career that will motivate you today. Is starting a screenwriter career in Hollywood, or anywhere else for that matter, a realistic career goal? Yes. And no... The answer is no if you fall into the cliched trap of the aspiring screenwriter, i.e. talking about writing more than actually writing, not […]
5 of the best movie scripts to learn from in each major genre. Professional film scripts are one of the best tools screenwriters have at their disposal. There is nothing else that gives you the practical experience of how it all comes together than reading a produced screenplay. But what are the best movie scripts to […]
Screenplay submissions 101: how to submit a screenplay like a pro. So you’ve written a great script... Now what? To many aspiring screenwriters, figuring out what to do with a screenplay once its finished is even more difficult than writing the thing in the first place. Maybe you've just finished a screenplay but have never tried […]
How to make your script writing style leverage 100x more suspense. There is one vital ingredient that sets apart the script writing style of screenplays that sell from those they don't... SUSPENSE. And this doesn't only apply to all you thriller and horror writers out there. If you want a producer or manager to absolutely […]
Why you should stop thinking of movie script format in terms of rules. (This post is an extract from our book "Master Screenplay Formatting: A Clear Guide On How To Format A Screenplay For The Spec Market.") Rather than discussing rules and regulations like most formatting books, we prefer to talk about how to format […]
Make screenplay character development 100x easier with this #1 hack. Do you have an incredible idea for a script, but are unsure how to make the characters feel real? Do you often get the note back that your characters feel two-dimensional? Here's a simple screenplay character development hack that most aspiring writers don’t use, but […]
3 bad excuses writers give for not organizing a screenplay table read. You may have heard that it's a good idea to read your screenplay aloud with a group of your peers. But have you actually taken the time to organize a table read of your script? It's one of those things most aspiring screenwriters […]