What’s your inciting incident?

What’s your inciting incident?

My what? Your inciting incident. You know — your story catalyst; your protagonist’s call to action / adventure. As Robert McGee writes in his fantastic book, Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting: The INCITING INCIDENT...

10 Rules For Using Parentheticals

First, what are they? Parentheticals, or actor/character directions, or “wrylies,” are those little descriptions that sometimes appear after a character’s name, in dialogue blocks, to spell out tone, intent or action. In the poorly written example...
The Power of Story

The Power of Story

Caption Contest Recently a contest was held to come up with a caption for the following image from Terry Border’s new book: Bent Objects: The Secret Life of Everyday Things There were the standard lines and puns submitted: “We need to stop getting fried so...
5 Key Differences Between Spec and Shooting Scripts

5 Key Differences Between Spec and Shooting Scripts

Some Definitions A spec script is a screenplay that’s written “on speculation.” That is, you, the screenwriter, write the script without any development contract or promise of payment in place, in the hopes of getting it optioned, sold, or gaining...