THE KEY TO CHARACTER DESCRIPTION: VIVID, REVEALING DETAILS
Your job as a storyteller is to create IMAGES. This is true not just for screenwriters, but for anyone presenting a story to a reader or an audience.
DIALOGUE vs. ACTION: Tell Don’t Show
Writing and storytelling are filled with rules and maxims that are presented as unbreakable commandments – but which should occasionally be challenged.
STORY STRUCTURE: Superior Position, Foreshadowing and Ticking Clocks in AVATAR – Part One
James Cameron’s screenplay Avatar is an outstanding example of using many structural tools and devices successfully in one script.
Arenas and Finish Lines: AVATAR and THE HURT LOCKER
I find it fascinating that Avatar and The Hurt Locker – the two movies that duked it out for the 2009 Best Picture Oscar® – have so many common plot elements.
STORY STRUCTURE: The 5 Key Turning Points of All Successful Screenplays
Though writing a successful Hollywood movie is certainly not easy, the stories for mainstream Hollywood films are all built on only three basic components: character, desire and conflict.
STORY STRUCTURE: 10 Simple Keys to Effective Plot Structure
Structure is something that every agent, editor, publisher, Hollywood executive, public speaker, marketer and story teller talks about, to the point that it can seem complicated.
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.
WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? The King’s Speech
Stories are built on a foundation of desire and conflict. To create an emotionally involving and commercially successful screenplay, you must give your hero…
THE #1 QUALITY OF SUCCESSFUL STORYTELLERS
Every successful screenwriter or novelist I know possesses one outstanding quality: tenacity. The difference between working writers and wannabes isn’t talent or age.