aka Working With Your Internal Critic So over the past couple of weeks I’ve been writing a draft for a deadline. It was a pretty tight deadline – but I was determined to finish and to do the best that I could. I decided that I would assign a page count per day and get […]
Archive | September, 2009
Different Stories Call for Different Techniques
My standard technique for approaching story has been pretty static since I studied in private workshop with Syd Field years ago, although was honed at AFI: start with the six beats, write a synopsis, card out my story, create the beat sheet, and then write the script based on my beat sheet. Now that I’ve […]
When in a Draft: Re-Read Your Own Pages
I’ve been working on a draft these past couple of weeks, so I have the writing process on my mind. I was chatting with a couple of writer friends the other day and they both said when they’re drafting, they start the writing day by re-reading the previous day’s pages and editing them. This helps […]
Josh Olson: “I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script.”
Josh Olson, screenwriter of A History of Violence, wrote this fantastic article about a non-writer “friend” who asked him, as a favor, to read an outline. This explains exactly why writers shouldn’t spend free time reading work that isn’t at a peer level. Because the average non-writer douchebag isn’t really interested in notes. They just […]
Director Michael Hoffman on Finding the Truth of the Story
I had another favorite moment in the Telluride Film Festival Q&A after the screening of Michael Hoffman’s “The Last Station,” about the last year of Leo Tolstoy’s life. The movie stars Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy, Helen Mirren as his wife, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti and Kerry Condon. Ken Burns moderated a discussion with Helen Mirren […]
Helen Mirren on Gerard Depardieu and What’s on the Page
Today’s the last day of the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival. There were a couple of highlights, but my favorite was the Q&A after the screening of Michael Hoffman’s “The Last Station,” about the last year of Leo Tolstoy’s life. The movie stars Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy, Helen Mirren as his wife, James McAvoy, Paul […]
Writing Down the Page
“Writing down the page” is an expression that basically means the thrust of the story moves down the page with action, description, dialogue and carefully chosen sparse elements, so the reader’s eye is continually pulled down the page and then to the next page. You should aim not to get the reader’s eye stuck in […]