One thing that leads to big script problems with new writers is when their lead character isn’t leading the story.  How do you know this is what’s happening and how do you fix it? Why your lead character must lead your story. In most stories, the lead is the protagonist who is also typically the [...]

Continued from yesterday Awkward, Unnatural Dialogue We’ve all read scripts or seen movies where we thought, “Nobody talks like that.”  It takes us out of the scene, ruins the moment for us.  Sometimes it’s the result of exposition, but sometimes, it’s just awkward phrasing.  New writers are so eager to get stuff down on paper, [...]

Part II will address points 4 & 5 and be published at 10AM tomorrow. It’s one thing to be told to write sizzling dialogue, but quite another to recognize when the dialogue you’ve written doesn’t.  There are essentially five reasons your dialogue is flat: on-the-nose: describes exactly what’s happening in the scene no subtext: character [...]

Entertaining Isn’t Enough The worst excuse for a poorly crafted screenplay is this: it’s only a movie.  Yes, it’s only a movie, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that it isn’t about anything.  Every movie must be about something.  This means it must be centered around a theme, have a controlling idea and answer a [...]

*Spoiler alert: the endings to several popular movies are revealed in this article. Revealing the End at the Beginning Sometimes you want to reveal the ending at the beginning then explain the story through flashback.  This is a favourite temptation with rookie writers who try to resolve their story issues by putting the ending up [...]