Why Story Structure is the Key to Success
by John Truby There is a system of thought known as the As-If Philosophy. In a nutshell, the As-If Philosophy says: We know we will die, but we act “as if” we will live forever. The ironic result is...
View ArticleA Nineteenth-Century Guide to Screenwriting
by Michael Halperin Victorians’ Secrets: A Nineteenth-Century Guide to Screenwriting, or How the Victorians Invented the Screenplay It may seem peculiar in the 21st century to discuss screenwriting in...
View ArticleApproaching Character: The Circle of Being
by Syd Field Henry James, the great American novelist, in an essay entitled The Art of Fiction, asks a rhetorical question about the nature of character: “What is character,” he writes, “but the...
View ArticleUnlocking The Power of Story Within You
by James Bonnet What is the source of our creativity? How can we communicate with that source and use it to unlock the natural storyteller that resides in us all? Carl Jung called the source of our...
View ArticleHow do I Treat my Treatment?
by Michael Halperin Question: I have completed my screenplay, but I never wrote a treatment. I met a producer who wants to see a treatment only. Some people say a treatment should be three pages long,...
View ArticleThe Screenwriting Rules of Series TV
By Pamela Douglas Break out of the box of traditional screenwriting assumptions! In this excerpt from Writing the TV Drama Series: Second Edition, Pamela Douglas gives you some new rules for writing...
View Article5 Major Rules for the First Ten Pages
It is a common saying that the first ten pages of your feature length screenplay are the most important. Here are 5 major rules you should observe to make your first ten as gripping as possible. …To...
View ArticleThe Biggest Genre-Specific Mistakes Writers Make
Writing inside a genre means you will have specific requirements for feel and characterization. Carson Reeves explores the biggest systematic mistakes writers make writing in their genre: Part I …...
View ArticleWriting the “Mirror Moment”
James Strzelinski explores what he calls the “Mirror Moment” – the turning point of a character arc which has the lead metaphorically (or literally) looking in the mirror and reevaluating everything....
View ArticleRobert Ben Garant on Writing Scripts for Studios
In this hour-long presentation at Loyola University New Orleans, Robert Ben Garant (Reno 911, Night at the Museum) talks about writing for a studio system and the importance of structure. Robert Ben...
View ArticleThe Story of Story: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love Structure
Justin Morrow traces the history of story and how we approach the human endeavor of explaining what happened. It is a truism that, “we tell ourselves stories in order to live.“ But, it is also...
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