The answer is— a million things. But very, very often, the first person to say yes to a book and pass it up the line for studio consideration is the reader, or story analyst. After college, before I sold my first film script, I worked as a reader for a mini-major...
So 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, I hope you’ve had a good long break. If at...
Even if you’re not a romance writer, there are very few books or scripts that don’t have love plots, at least subplots—and who doesn’t want to up their love story game? So at this romantic time of year, why not put yourself in the mood for love and in the mood to...
Happy New Year, and Happy Year of the Tiger! I’m late getting the year started—Omicron outbreak in the family over Christmas. Hope you all have managed to avoid it!But I always like to celebrate this off-beat holiday with a movie breakdown.As the classic It’s a...
Like I suspect a lot of people here, Craig and I ended up mourning the loss of the incomparable Sidney Poitier by watching In the Heat of the Night. I often reference Heat as an example in workshops, but watching it again reminded me of what a great teaching movie it...
Last week of November—we're into Act III, now! Or maybe, even probably, you're not that far yet, which is perfectly fine. As long as you're writing, it's all good. The book will be done when it's done.But if you are into Act III, here are the prompts for that last...
Yesterday we talked about general characteristics of a MIDPOINT. Now let's look at some examples.A favorite MIDPOINT of mine (in a masochistic kind of way) is in Brian DePalma’s The Untouchables. It's also a great example of how a main character's PLAN and MAIN STORY...
It’s halfway through the month— but for the vast majority of Nanowrimo writers I would be shocked if you were actually halfway through your book (as opposed to halfway through 50K words!) But it's still a good reason to talk about one of the most important elements...
The first half of Act Two, which we will call Act II, Part 1 (30-60 minutes in a film, pages 100-200 in a book), is the most variable of the four Acts. Yes, for reasons I go into in my workshops and workbooks, the Three-Act Structure of filmmaking actually has four...
Whether you’re doing Nanowrimo or not, this is one of the most important scenes of the Act One of any story. We first see the hero/ine of a story in what mythologist Joseph Campbell called the Ordinary World. That world gives us a lot of essential information about...
