Subject Matter « Screenwriter-to-Screenwriter.com

Example of How To Introduce Your Protagonist (Erin Brockovich)

One of my favorite scripts is “Erin Brockovich,” because I love the writing. It is abundantly clear, sparsely written, and dense with meaning. This script captures worlds of information with just a few simple, extremely well chosen words. To my mind, that is excellence in screenwriting.

Please read this excerpt of the opening of [...]

Introduce Your Character to the Reader

Now that we’re heading back into competition season for 2010, I am going to revisit the most important aspects of the screenplay, and in some cases I will try to link to examples of how they’re done correctly.

I just read a pile of scripts and only one of the writers bothered to introduce me to [...]

Why Shutter Island Didn’t Work: Audience Expectation

Okay, okay, so it was based on a book. Let’s forget that and look at why this project didn’t work as a film.

There’s an adage about screenwriting that you shouldn’t write movies about a dream within a dream within a dream and then *ta da!* oops, you only imagined what you saw this whole [...]

Ten Rules for Writing Fiction

Inspired by Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing, The Guardian asked authors for their personal dos and don’ts.

Part One of the article from The Guardian.

Click here for Part Two of the article.

Pixar: Writing Complete Stories

An interesting article on how Pixar focuses on writing complete stories from Story Fanatic.

Positioning Yourself as a Writer:<br>Choosing Genre

It’s probably worth your time to think about how you want to get sold as a writer. If you have material worth selling, at some point someone is going to discover this, and they’ll try to package you and sell you as a certain kind of writer.

What kind of writer do you want to [...]

Be Careful When Mixing Genre: Jennifer’s Body

I’m sitting here watching Jennifer’s Body, which is a movie I should love. I think the concept is amazing – a girl who gets taken advantage of by men only to turn the tables and start fucking over men. It should be edgy, fucking hilarious, scary as shit and I was expecting this movie to [...]

Who Are You Writing For?

I was Skyping with a writer friend the other night who had sent me a list of about 10 loglines and was wanting to brainstorm which project to write next. He later sent me an email indicating he’d chosen to write a horror movie starring a young boy character and, in essence, a CGI character. [...]

Trusting Your Gut:<br>Writing Passion vs. Structure

I’m visiting with one of my best friends now whose son, my godson, tragically died in October. This is a part of why I haven’t been writing since that time. I’ve also been trying to prioritize my own creative writing, but I’ve not had an easy time getting those pages in, either. It’s cold and [...]

Subject Matter: The Legal Thriller

You might not like it, but I just have to say it: My advice with legal thrillers is “just say no.”

Legal thrillers can be completely amazing, but this genre is pretty well tapped out. We’ve now birthed three solid generations of “Law and Order” and franchise viewers, as well as two strong generations of [...]

Subject Matter: Be Fresh

Let’s take a fresh look at writing “fresh” subject matter.

Subject matter is key, because there is a tremendous amount of material out there that doesn’t bring something that feels new or unique to the table. There is no fresh take on the material.

Hollywood doesn’t really want something totally new. This is for a couple [...]

You Don’t Need To Be on the Page

I was having a conversation this morning with another writer friend, and we had a little bit of a laugh (but not in a malicious way) about another writer who fancies himself a director and this is evident in his writing because he, meaning his personality, is everywhere on the page. When you read his [...]

Be Smart About When You Write What

This is intended as a follow up post to Write What You Love.

I went to AFI for film school where, I imagine distinct from USC and UCLA, we didn’t really learn much, if anything, about the entertainment business. I learned a ton about writing and the writing process – but as far as the business [...]

Write the Movies You Really Want To See

This is intended as a follow up post to Write What You Love.

Okay. This might sound ridiculous, but bear with me. Say a magic genie appeared tonight before you fell asleep, Shazam!, and gave you a magic ticket to the best movie ever the following day, what movie would you want to see? If it [...]

Write What You Love

My friend had a rough writing day the other day. She had a moment of disappointment that she wasn’t writing projects that are more high-concept and commercial. I reminded her that we can only write what we love. That’s the best we can do. Sometimes we just have to write what we love just because [...]

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