Key decisions that make your screenwriting easier.
Here is a harsh truth: 99% of your passes are pre-destined. Here's why.
Tom Vaughan
Scene generation: "What do we want to see?"
Given the characters, genre, situation, relationships, and the concepts we have established:
What do we want to see?
What motivates the characters in your screenplay?
Anxiety means well. Anxiety’s job is to protect us, after all. It’s just usually an incredibly unskilled and unproductive way to do it.
How to attack your scene transitions.
Nearly every screenplay has 100+ transitions from one scene to another. This can be a major area of stress with the reader. Don't let it be.
Strategies for the industry contraction.
I was back in Los Angeles for the first time in eight months. My first priority was to sit and talk with my agents.
This is what we discussed.
Choosing the point of view of a scene.
The narrative point of view is through whom we experience a story, scene, or moment. We get information as they do, and often, as a result, that is who we empathize with.
How to write a montage.
Don't let proper montage format sabotage your montage.
Five types of directors attached to your screenplay.
Not all directors are created equal.
While it's always great to hear kind things about our work, always know exactly how and why someone moves your project further toward production.
Do professional screenwriters get to play by different rules?
Do professional writers operate under different rules?
No. They do not.
Can they get away with more aggressive formatting?
Yes, they can.
But not because of rules.
The 3 points of character descriptions.
The good news is that you do not have to be brilliant. Just know the assignment.
How to generate great scenes year-round.
But you don't have to wait until you're working on a project to develop great scenes. In fact, you shouldn't.
The two key elements to narrative momentum.
Narrative momentum is the force that keeps the audience compelled to continue watching. It's why a good 3-hour movie can go by so much faster than a bad 90 minute film.