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The Creative Screenwriting Cyberspace Open – Part 1
Wading in to Competition A few weeks back, I entered the annual Cyberspace Open screenwriting tournament put on by the people that produce the wonderful Creative Screenwriting magazine and hold the Screenwriting Expo in Los Angeles. For the first round, the rules of...
Get off the island
Writing is a very solitary craft. Even if you have a writing partner, most of your time will still be spent isolated on an island of your thoughts, staring at a computer screen, tapping at your keyboard, away from people and distractions. That's all well and good, but...
Internet Movie Firearms Database
Have you ever watched a movie and thought, "Wow, I wish there were some way I could find out what kind of gun that is"? Come on... be honest. No, me either. But for those who have, there's the Internet Movie Firearms Database. The cool kids call it the IMFDB. I typed...
Do you have an active protagonist?
One of the most common problems I encounter in scripts is the passive protagonist. If you're writing a mainstream Hollywood movie, you need to make sure your protagonist is active. What does it mean to have an "active" protagonist? Robert McKee writes, in his amazing...
Seven ways to ensure your scenes are lean and mean
Like exercising, screenwriting takes discipline. Before you sell your script, there's no one there to police your scenes but you. As such, one of the most common mistakes writers make is they allow their scenes to binge on the Vegas-sized buffets of their imagination....
Are you my density?
"I'm your density." - George McFly Are you still writing dense paragraphs of description in your script? You know what I mean. Those paragraphs that keep going and going like the Energizer Bunny. If so, it may be working against you. How long is too long? There's no...
Take action with your verbs
As brevity in screenwriting is so crucial, it's extremely important to pick verbs that do more than just describe the action. In the rush to get that first draft of our script finished, we often plug in action words that we use every day in conversation or that come...
Write Like a Pro — Avoid Adverbs
Every day this week I'll be posting a new article on common mistakes screenwriters make. Today's topic is adverbs -- you know, those flowery words that usually end in "ly." Words like: quickly, haphazardly, vastly, very, annoyingly... etc. They describe verbs or...
Essential Reading for Screenwriters
The scriptwrecked bookstore is now online! I've created a special list of books that I believe every screenwriter should have in their collection. If you click on the link for each book, you'll find reviews, descriptions and even a personal introduction by yours...