The Mental Battle The three deadly sins of the pre-outline phase. Early on, I managed to overcome my self-sabotage with resilience and some wildly good luck. But when the luck ran out, the resilience started to look a lot more like stubbornness.
Action Lines Mind the flow on the page. We are telling a story meant for a visual and aural experience by using a medium that lacks both: text.
The Mental Battle It's the trend line in our screenwriting that matters. No one’s work just gets better and better and better. No one’s.
Scene Work The habit of making choices. Get into the habit of making choices, and you will get increasingly better with the choices you make.
Process What screenwriters can learn from Kelvin Sampson. Coach Sampson doesn't bring anything entirely new to this. What he does bring is clarity and commitment. And those two things are what matter.
Structure The Drive to the Finish The decision that dictates Sequence 6: The Drive to the Finish is the midpoint.
Process Write your Spec. But first, write your treatment. I used to hate treatments. Now it's an immensely valuable part of my process.
Process What fear are you exploiting? Fear works best when it is primal and taps into something much more profound than jump scares
Character 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.
Scene Work Know the mini-story of the scene. At its core, screenwriting is scene work. And like everything else, scenes have a story.
The Mental Battle 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.
Action Lines 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.