ADAPTATION: Michael Hauge’s 4 Rules of Adaptation
All film making, and all storytelling, has one primary objective: to elicit emotion in the audience. This objective is achieved with only three basic elements, which form the foundation of all story.
ADAPTATION: The 5 Key Elements to a Successful Adaptation
Fiction writers must realize that much of what makes a novel great is by definition eliminated from the movie: writing style; interior thoughts of the characters; narration.
ADAPTATION: Movies Aren’t Novels
Many fiction writers, at one point or another, consider adapting their own work into film. Because both novelists and screenwriters use characters to tell fictional stories.
COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL
One of the biggest mistakes screenwriters make is giving too little importance to commercial appeal of their story. Before putting words on the page, a writer should always ask…
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.
REMEMBERING SYD
Back in the Dark Ages, when I was just a movie lover fresh from Oregon with Hollywood dreams, I attended Sherwood Oaks Experimental College.
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.