by Trevor Mayes | Jul 8, 2018 | Style, Writing
When do you start a new paragraph? One thing that tends to confound new screenwriters is the issue of paragraphs. Some scripts have longer paragraphs. Other scripts have shorter ones — some as short as one word. So how do you decide it’s time to start a...
by Trevor Mayes | Jun 13, 2018 | Modern Craft, Style, Writing
Efficiency Screenwriting is all about efficiency. Maximum impact with the minimum number of words. So one of my biggest pet peeves is when I see the following in scripts: She shakes her head no. There are two big things wrong with that action line: Why is the word...
by Trevor Mayes | Dec 20, 2017 | Style, Words, Writing
Dude, aren’t all verbs active? Good question, smartass! The truth is, there are passive and active forms of verbs. The active form (without the “ing”) is almost always the best one to use. For example, I often see a variation of the following...
by Trevor Mayes | Jan 22, 2017 | Writing
When do you capitalize god, mom and dad? Based on the frequency with which I encounter these capitalization mistakes while proofreading scripts, there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding this question. Luckily, there’s a really easy trick to...
by Trevor Mayes | May 17, 2016 | Dialogue, Formatting, Script Proofreading, Writing
The Problem In a previous post, I discussed the difference between using dashes (hyphens) and dots (ellipses) at the end of a sentence — a common source of confusion. Recently, I’ve discovered a new and erroneous trend with hyphens. With increasing...
by Trevor Mayes | Jun 23, 2014 | Motivation, Screenwriters, Writing
Anyone else out there a fan of MMA (mixed martial arts)? No? Doesn’t matter, this lesson applies to any professional endeavor — including screenwriting. So there’s this fighter named Benson Henderson. He’s got about as much genuine swagger as...
