Screenwriter-to-Screenwriter.com » story notes

Free Screenplay Story Notes Giveaway to Oscar Picks Winner

Monica — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:13:19 +0000

I’m offering a free basic story notes package on a screenplay to any reader who can correctly predict the Oscar winners in the following categories:

1. Best Picture 2. Actor in a Leading Role 3. Actor in a Supporting Role 4. Actress in a Leading Role 5. Actress in a Supporting Role 6. Cinematography 7. Directing 8. Writing (Adapted Screenplay) 9. Writing (Original Screenplay) [...]

Trusting Your Gut: Writing Passion vs. Structure

Monica — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:39:03 +0000

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: Sci-Fi Writers Beware

Monica — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:13:13 +0000

Science fiction is complicated to write. You have to create a believable world that is rich and full of detail with no breaks in logic in a limited pagecount, hit the genre conventions and then write a smart story on top of that. Also, it can’t be something we’ve seen before – it has to [...]

Subject Matter: Don’t Write About Writers or Hollywood, Please

Monica — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:13:04 +0000

Today I’ve read a couple of stories about Hollywood aspirings – aspiring writers, directors, actors, etc. In this reading season I’ve probably read a number of these kinds of scripts. Please, people, no. Don’t do it. Ninety nine times out of one hundred, your life as an aspiring writer isn’t interesting enough to warrant a [...]

Screenplay: The Importance of the First Five Pages

Monica — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:13:11 +0000

The opening five pages of your screenplay give me a ton of information about the breadth and scope of your project. As with the opening of a novel or any other literary work, the opening of your screenplay should be a microcosm of the world of your script. It’s the first taste – but as [...]

What Happened to the Inciting Incident?

Monica — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:13:31 +0000

You’d be surprised – I have been – but a very high number of scripts I’m reading don’t have inciting incidents. I am getting to page 15, page 20, page 30, and there’s really no defined story. I would say that this is in about 25% of the scripts I’m reading. Obviously, these scripts are [...]

Screenwriting Basics: The Importance of Theme

Monica — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:30:00 +0000

A reader asked me to write something about theme, as it is possibly the most nebulous component of good writing and yet arguably the most important. Theme, to me, is the soul of the piece. It’s a part of the unspoken meaning to each of the scenes that is continually omnipresent.

Most scripts I read [...]

Breaking Story: The Six Major Beats

Monica — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:05:23 +0000

Generally, when people begin the outline process or look more specifically at the structure of any given script, they look closely at the six beats. In film school, it was explained to us that these are the major “tent pole” story points – the major points of story upon which you hang the rest of [...]

Screenplay Plotting: Where’s the B Story?

Monica — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:02:46 +0000

Many of the scripts I’m reading at the competition level are very unsophisticated in the plotting of their B stories. Many don’t have B stories at all. Your A story may be well plotted and the characters may be clearly and succinctly drawn, however, if there aren’t interesting B stories dense with subtext that inform [...]

Writing is Rewriting: You Have To Do the Work

Monica — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:02:40 +0000

For me as a reader, I can tell you that most scripts I read are a sparkling, resounding, operatic voice calling out from the heavens, “PASS!” There’s just nothing in them. Sometimes I wonder why that writer actually wanted to invest the time. What they thought was so interesting in their little project as to [...]