10,000 Hours
I love writers. And I especially enjoy helping young writers who email with the big question: When? When will I sell my first script? When will I “get on the boards”? My patient reply is always the same: Don’t worry about that right now. Have...
All the Way Back
Here’s the problem you’re confronted with: Act Three isn’t gelling. There doesn’t seem to be enough oomph in your big finish, and the hero doesn’t really seem to be learning a lesson — or applying it. That big, emotional uplift you’ve wanted to put in...
The Primal Piece
Overheard at the place where I get my hair cut: “I think it’s about comedians. It seems okay. Then I saw that Adam Sandler is, I guess, dying or something. It looks really good.” This was a conversation about the upcoming Judd Apatow movie, Funny...
Dialogue Clinic
Recently I’ve been asked to help screenwriters buff up their scene-writing skills and in particular those scenes in which characters and dialogue fail to inspire. The critique comes back with things like “the dialogue is on the nose,” “the scene is flat,” or “all the...
Dig Deep Down
Doing a review of Slumdog Millionaire earlier this year, I discovered something fascinating. We all know the movie, and the sweep of the Academy Awards that followed its release. But I wonder if the movie would have had the same impact if filmmakers went with...
It’s What the Pros Use
Recently, I’ve had to honor of helping out on a couple of studio projects. For you and I writing on spec, there is a palpable need for success, but get inside the walls of the studio, with millions of dollars and the jobs of your...
And the Winner Is…
Well, the results are in from our Second Save the Cat! Contest of 2009, and to quote Leonard Pinth-Garnell: Awwwwwful! Truly dreaaaaaadful! And that’s a good thing. Asked to write the first 250 words of a screenplay guaranteed to be thrown across the room before...
