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?
Know what makes your screenplay unique.
The fastest route to selling a script and getting it made is to have a concept that gets people excited before they ever read the screenplay.
Screenplay structure is fractal.
I approach each screenplay structure as a fractal and have found that the most satisfying screen stories follow this pattern.
The last line of a scene is the impact.
The button is the last line of a scene. It is the final moment before we transition out of one scene and into the next.
The first line of the scene is the first image.
The first line of every scene is special. It has a purpose. This purpose is especially important as there is so much friction for the reader in the transition from one scene to another.