Write your first book—or your best book yet—
using the storytelling tricks of your favorite movies
Nailing Your Act I
I’ve decided to drill down on the essential elements of Act Ifor February (with some digressions!). Last week I suggested that everyone would benefit from reviewing the essential elements of whatever Act you’re writing in right now. But how much more fun to do it...
What Should I Be Doing Right Now? (For my book or script)
For the New Year I've been focusing on motivational tricks to get you writing again. Next month I'll be covering essential Story Elements from the beginning of Act I. But since people are naturally at different stages of their books and scripts, I thought I'd try a...
Fall in Love with Story Structure!
So in this New Year, of all my Top Tricks to Get Yourself Writing Again, my Trick #1 is: Fall in Love with Story Structure I’m not ever going to try to talk anyone out of being a pantser! Your process is your process.To...
SELMA – Act I Story Breakdown
This month, why not celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and work on your storytelling craft—by watching Selma? We’ve started talking about using Story Patterns (What KIND of Story is It?). In Selma, the filmmakers have chosen the structural form of a War Story and...
15 Minutes of Writing Per Day Equals a Book
Happy New Year, everyone!! I’ll keep this brief, because I’ve come to believe in easing into the year instead of making frantic pages of resolutions, But how about just this one? I’m going to write on my book or script for 15 minutes a day. When I was teaching dance I...
Holiday Homework: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
I know some of you have heard me talk about this movie before. But I have to repeat it. Because there is something that a whole lot of us do this time of year that we can actually turn into an almost miraculous (as it were) 2 1/2 hour session on writing. We sit down...
First Chapters
First Chapters are a very fraught subject. Writers agonize over them. I don’t have to tell you! The pressure is enormous, isn’t it? The first chapter sells your submission and it sells your book once it’s published. It carries the whole weight of the book with it. It...
Nanowrimo Now What?
You did Nanowrimo! Huzzah!! Or maybe you didn’t, but whether you did it through Nanowrimo or not, you now have a rough draft—maybe a very, very, very rough draft— of your book or script. Huzzah!!' So now what? First of all, Take a break. If at all possible, when...
The Writer’s Journey: The Descent
In Greek mythology, the Hero’s journey into the Underworld is called katabasis. Writers take that journey all the time. You could say that every time we turn on our laptops to write, every time we enter the worlds of our books, we are entering the Underworld: the...
Nanowrimo 2022 series and more
YES, I am doing my usual prompts for Nanowrimo! You can find them and lots of other non-Nano posts on the Screenwriting Tricks for Authors Substack main page. Nanowrimo prompts: Act I Questions and Prompts Elements of Act II:1 overview Act II Part I...
