DESIRE: The Driving Force of All Successful Stories
In other articles I discuss everything from story structure and adaptation to pitching and marketing your story. But here I want to cover something much more basic.
THE 5 REQUIREMENTS FOR A HERO’S OUTER MOTIVATION
If you’ve ever heard me lecture, or ever read almost anything I’ve written, you’ve heard me talk about Outer Motivation — a clear finish line that the hero is desperate to cross by the end of the story.
THE PROLOGUE OPENING
The first 10% of your screenplay is what I term the SETUP, during which you must transport the reader from the real world into the world you’ve created.
COMPOSING EFFECTIVE QUERY LETTERS
I often receive desperate letters from writers who say they can’t get anyone to respond to their query letters. If your letters, faxes or emails aren’t resulting in requests…
PREPARING TO WRITE A SPEC TV SCRIPT
When you decide to write a spec script for television, you must first decide the series for which you want to write a sample episode.
PITCHING: Antecedents
In any pitch, the buyer wants to know two seemingly contradictory elements of your novel or screenplay: its familiarity and its originality.