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.
The Drive to the Finish
The decision that dictates Sequence 6: The Drive to the Finish is the midpoint.
Write your Spec. But first, write your treatment.
I used to hate treatments. Now it's an immensely valuable part of my process.
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.