Heroes are traditionally described as the main character or protagonist of a story. They have the most admirable qualities, they must overcome the greatest hurdles, and their stakes are often a matter of life or death. Most screenwriters are aware...

In the dramatic arts, Thespis of Icaria was the first known person to embody a character from a written play before a crowd, thus introducing the protagonist to the world.The protagonist is the main character of the story. They are the central...

As a script consultant, determining the theme of a script is one of the areas I often focus on with writers. Figuring out what your story is really about is essential to the success of your piece. Without a clear central idea, the script can easily...

Everyone gets lost sometimes. In order to find our way back from our wanderings, we search for familiar markers, signs, or symbols to guide us where we need to go, whether in our lives or stories.So let’s not search blindly through the forest...

“Balancing Parental Unconditional Love With Truth” Morten Tyldum Talks ‘Defending Jacob’: Defending Jacob is a thriller streaming on Apple TV+ starring Chris Evans and Michelle Dockery. It was adapted by screenwriter...

Creative Screenwriting Magazine has announced the Grand Prize Winner of our Unique Voices Screenplay Competition. Desa Larkin-Boutte certainly won us over with her unique take on identity and race wrapped in a TV comedy of mistaken identity...

We have all heard about how important it is to be present, to stay aware of the power of the moment and squeeze every drop from this life and live it to the fullest. We don’t often hear an argument against this, as if someone out there is...

“Vida” Enjoyed Three Glorious Seasons On Starz And Opened The Doors To More LatinX TV Series: Tanya Saracho is the showrunner behind the popular LatinX television series, Vida on Starz. Vida is more than a...

Ostensibly, the film Ford v Ferrari is all about the true story of how the Ford Motor Company set out to best Enzo Ferrari’s prowess at Le Mans in 1966 through the help of two racing professionals, but at the end of the day, the film...

Supporting characters serve a lot of functions in films and TV, and, when approached properly, they enhance and burnish the overall impact of visual storytelling. Let’s take a look at some of the key functions of supporting characters in...

At the Oscars this year, Brie Larson, Gal Gadot, and Sigourney Weaver presented the music awards while trumpeting the powerful women they played in, respectively, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, and Alien. Weaver even cracked about how...

“Intimacy Can Save You.” Screenwriter-Producer Alyson Feltes On Hit Netflix TV Show ‘Ozark.’Alyson Feltes, writer on Netflix TV hit Ozark, starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, spoke to Creative Screenwriting Magazine...

13 Types Of TV Writers’ Rooms WhiteboardsEvery TV writer dreams about being part of the team that plots entire seasons and individual episodes of a television series. And for some, it will become a reality. In a few weeks, scripts of each...

“Uncut Gems” Makes for a Tense and Tumultuous Character Study:There are many outstanding qualities to the new film Uncut Gems. It’s a vivid character study that stars Adam Sandler in his best screen performance to date. The...

Characters drive stories. Powerful characters give writers reasons to create stories around them. Directors want to create moments around that power. Actors want to channel that power. Audiences want to take part in that power. As a writer, your job...

“Be Careful What You Wish For” Screenwriter Jillian Jacobs Talks ‘Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island’ Do you have a fantasy? Do you imagine going to a mysterious tropical resort where dreams can come true and anything is...

Pulling the rug out from under an audience is tricky work these days. We’ve all seen so many hours of entertainment, even the casual viewer has become well-versed in narrative structure, the tropes of Hollywood storytelling, and genre clichés....

By Armaan Uplekar. Sarah Connor. Ethan Hunt. James Bond. There’s a deep bench of iconic characters that have helped define and exemplify action cinema for decades. Between preventing nuclear annihilation, rescuing hostages and restoring...

Throughout the history of cinema, there have been a lot of underwritten characters. Sometimes the story is amazing, but the people – the moving parts – aren’t. If you are unable to connect with who you are watching on screen on a...

Even in a pandemic, I’m still getting daily calls and emails from execs and producers asking if any of my students have a new pilot spec they should be reading.Because with Amazon and Netflix committed to spending billions on new content, and...