What fear are you exploiting?
Fear works best when it is primal and taps into something much more profound than jump scares
The relationships go the way of the story.
Stories do not illustrate a protagonist's journey solely through their actions but also through the effects those actions have on others in their lives.
Know the mini-story of the scene.
At its core, screenwriting is scene work. And like everything else, scenes have a story.
A nepo baby's main advantage is something you can emulate.
The biggest advantage of nepotism isn't the connections; it's the immersion in the craft and the embedded belief that a career is possible.
For screenwriting, it's show, then tell.
Perhaps the most repeated bit of screenwriting advice is "show, don't tell." But maybe that's not the whole story.
Five ways to simplify your screenwriting.
Have you SEEN how much information is available on screenwriting?
How can we possibly keep our minds clean to write?
When your story idea starts with a world.
Stories can come from anywhere. A great source is simply recognizing an interesting world that is ripe for narrative attention.
A tip from acting for the screenwriter.
While an actor, I was taught a little trick about giving my character a secret.
The trope doesn't have to mean cliché.
Sometimes, a story wants or needs a beat that we have seen many, many times before. That makes it more of a challenge, not less.
Act 3 reveals the structure of your story.
There is an expression about how you can determine your real values based on how you allocate your resources. This is true for screen time as well.
The vital job of Act 1 that not enough people talk about
A huge part of Act 1's job is to get the audience to believe the protagonists's often outlandish choice that drives us into Act 2.
Does the relationship trump the dramatic question?
How could a movie possibly work when the dramatic question is answered at the end of Act 2?