A professional screenwriter said to me recently, “If someone reads my script and says, ‘Man, I really loved the writing,’ I want to punch them in the face. What I want them to say is, ‘I really loved your story.’ There’s a big difference.” He explained that the difference is that we’re primarily storytellers – […]
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The Season of Weird, Chatty Dramedies
By Monica on August 31, 2010 in Audience, Character, Genre, Ideas, Location, Logical World, Process, Story, Subject Matter, Theme, Tone, Uncategorized
I can’t say I totally understand it but this year was definitely the reading season for the Weird, Chatty Dramedy. I’d estimate that approximately 20% of the scripts I read this year involved an ensemble of types sitting around, chatting about various personal issues that were of absolutely no interest to me. Many of these […]
Dunne: The story is the journey for truth. The plot is the road it takes to get there.
By Monica on August 30, 2010 in Books on Screenwriting, Character, Story, Subject Matter, Theme, Uncategorized
I’ve just started reading Peter Dunne’s “Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot” and it’s giving me a lot to think about. Dunne writes in Know Your Story, Know Your Plot, Know the Difference: When we think about great stories, about great movies, we remember first and foremost about whom the story is told. […]
Beat Sheets
I’m going to start working on posting some beat sheets to the blog – requests, anyone? I’ll try to do one film in each genre grouping to start. And if any reader has some beat sheets they’d like to share, please send them on over! Thanks!
Don’t Forget Film is a Visual Medium
The visual medium is the essence of “show, don’t tell.” A lot of scripts I’m seeing this year seem to have disregarded the fact that these stories should be a blueprint for something visual. This reading season has been the season of the chatty dramedy. By dramedy, I mean stories that at their essence aren’t […]
AL Kennedy on the Ideal Writing Day
Author AL Kennedy on the ideal writing day.
Women’s Romantic Fiction in Film
By Monica on May 27, 2010 in Adapting, Audience, Character, Genre, Story, Subject Matter, Uncategorized
I am not a huge consumer of women’s romantic fiction because I like a good story – and so I can’t speak intimately to the ins and outs of the genre. It would appear superficially that this genre is formulaic in the extreme so that the story is something secondary (contrived) and the primary focus […]
To Adapt or Not To Adapt?
Is it a good choice to adapt a project as an unproduced writer – or should you concentrate more of your energies on writing your own original screenplays? I actually discourage new writers (i.e., unestablished, without credits) from writing any screenplay to which they don’t own the rights. The problem with then adapting something as […]
Off the Grid
I’ve been off the grid for a while. I don’t have Internet access where I’m staying now, so it’s been hard to write and post to the blog. However, I’m still here – just very busy with reading and everything else going on right now. Anyway, thank you all for being patient with me and […]
The Confusion Between Main Character and Protagonist
Interesting information from Story Fanatic on the difference between the main character and protagonist. Read this article here.
Biopic: A Character’s Journey
By Monica on March 19, 2010 in Audience, Character, Genre, Location, Logical World, Process, Story, Subject Matter, Theme, Tone, Uncategorized
I’ve been reading a number of biopics based on very famous historical personages. They are flat and dry, like cardboard. The feeling I have reading them is that they take a marionette of a historical figure and dance them through the major events of their life. I start off with little or no understanding of […]
The Modern Western
An individual posted a question to one of the screenwriting forums on LinkedIn about the western genre and whether it’s worth his time to finish his western script and start querying. My thought was yes. The western genre appears to be back – but it isn’t strictly John Wayne anymore. The western has evolved into […]
Joe Bright on his Book “The Black Garden”
Author and screenwriter Joe Bright is interviewed about his new book, The Black Garden. Congratulations, Joe!
Writer’s Block? Rediscover Your Passion
Writer’s block is the devil. To my mind, it’s like being trapped inside a Sartre play: locked inside a room with no windows and no way out. I’ve been blocked lately – and it’s actually not a normal state for me. In fact, this might be the first true writer’s block I’ve experienced in the […]
Descriptors: Be Precise
By Monica on March 8, 2010 in Audience, Character, Formatting, Location, Logical World, Tone, Uncategorized
Don’t forget when you’re writing to use precise descriptors that evoke something very clear in the mind of the reader. Even in screenwriting, the quality of prose to some degree either engages or repels the reader and thus the experience of your screenplay. Try to avoid descriptors that are ambiguous, contradictory or confusing, because the […]