Articles
Imagine you're a studio script reader. It's Sunday night. You're dog-tired. Dreading work tomorrow where you're stuck in your own version of 'Swimming With Sharks' Read More
It's a fact of life – and perhaps even one of Murphy's Laws – that virtually anything you love to eat is bad for you and will ultimately consign you to a wretched demise. Conversely, anything you can't run away from fast enough Read More
Character Development Secrets: 7 Steps to Developing Real People Who Will Bring your Fiction to Life
Creating convincing characters that are believable takes time and discipline. Creating dynamically real individuals and not imposing your own thoughts and impressions upon them is not easy to do Read More
What is wrong with the following scene?
MEGAN and DANIEL are shown to their table by a WAITER. Read More
As a script consultant, I read a lot of scripts by people I have never met. When a script arrives, I usually have no idea what the writer's background might be. He or she might be a practicing or former plumber or professor, barrista or banker. Read More
We love writers. It helps that we are writers. We’re a team of working professionals, doing this together for about 16 years. We’re not the guys who wrote “The Bourne Identity,†“The Fight Club,†or “Eagle Eye†(though we can tell you where they hang out on Monday nights if you want to hang out with them). Read More
As a screenwriter, you may use other script consultants to critique your material, but inevitably you'll need to master the ability to analyze your own work. This can be a difficult task, somewhat akin to trying to look at your own face (without a mirror). If you are Read More
WHAT IS A TREATMENT, AND HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM A SYNOPSIS?
Often, in selling an idea to Hollywood, circumstances require that you write a "treatment" -- an engaging synopsis of your idea or story. The difference is Read More
It may be a cliché, but it's nonetheless true, that the mother of invention is necessity. Tight parameters sharpen the creative process and the most fundamental parameter of all Read More
I am going to sell a high-concept spec for a million dollars next year.
I am going to be a staff writer next year.
I am going to win the Nicholl Fellowship next year.
We've all had thoughts like these, right? Read More
