“How Do I Write A Great Character?” “I don’t write screenplay character biographies beforehand. I usually go in knowing some sequences: this is where I want to start, this is where I want to end.”— John Sayles “Character arcs always seem to be a big issue with film studio executives . . . so the […]
Does your story start at the beginning and run straight through? Do you pick it up late, and double back to tell the tale? Do you go Memento and get completely unconventional? Think of structure as the movie clock. Conventional stories are told in linear fashion, from 12:01am to midnight. Sure, there can be flashbacks, […]
So many gurus, so little time… Who do you like, Dara Marks or Blake Snyder? Go Old School with Syd Field or Robert McKee? How about looking over the grand-daddy of ’em all, the Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell? What’s wrong with books that help thousands of people conceptualize their writing? Nothing at all. So […]
“What make screenplays difficult are the things that require the most discipline and care and are just not seen by most people. I’m talking about movement — screenwriting is related to math and music, and if you zig here, you know you have to zag there. It’s like the descriptions for a piece of music […]
Once you’re writing with POV, don’t forget to avoid the booby-traps. For instance, directing the script. From Nueromancer: CAMERA BOOMS DOWN onto the spread eagled Case, surrounded by his enemies. He screams as the mycotoxin hits his nervous system like a runaway freight train. His dilated eyes flash open, staring into a hallucinatory hell. BOOM […]
