For me – and I think for many writers – the most intimidating part of the writing process is typing the first words of the first draft of a new film or TV script. It’s terrifying. I will procrastinate at that point of the writing...

A photo recently did the rounds on the online screenwriting community. It depicted piles of screenplays stacked up to the ceiling, dumped in the corner of some bland Hollywood Studio...

REPOST: We were lucky enough to chat with A-list scribe Zak Penn about storytelling in the rapidly-evolving technological age, how the film industry is evolving and how great things are right now for screenwriters. There are more writing...

And just like that, another successful Virtual Pitch Challenge is in the books! We had a great evening at our Pitch Panel, where we heard valuable feedback from industry pro panelists Leyla Kader Dahm (Literary Manager at Zero Gravity...

Should you work for free? That depends on what you mean by “work” and by “free.”Work is what you do as a professional, when you make a promise that involves rigor and labor (physical and emotional) and risk. Work is showing...

Keep It Short: Five Lessons For Crafting Short-Form Serialized Content (aka Web Series):Many screenwriters restrict themselves to traditional writing platforms such as film and TV. We asked John Bucher about writing web series as an alternative way...

The opening of your screenplay is arguably the most important part. No matter how great your story, if the opening fails to capture the studio reader or producer, the story ends right then and there for you.When I first started as a studio reader,...

Alex Creasia is a Literary Manager and Producer at Pathfinder Media. He represents writers and directors around the globe focusing on all formats of TV, Film, books, podcasts and digital. Recently his company merged with UMedia an international...

Writers want success, but how do you define it? Is it writing enough to pay your bills? Is it writing to find an audience, regardless if you make enough money or not? Maybe you want to be famous or win an Emmy or Oscar. Any writer would probably...

I am a flashback apologist. As readers of one of my previous Creative Screenwriting columns know, I believe it is narrow-minded for screenwriters to reject flashbacks out of hand as a storytelling device. Provided they give the...

Christopher Booker has made the claim that there are only seven basic stories that get told over and over again in different ways – overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, rebirth, comedy, and tragedy....

Writer-Director Theresa Bennett Discusses Character, Limited Resources & ‘Social Animals’:Making films is a curious balance of writing an entertaining screenplay and balancing it with whatever resources are available to bring your vision to the...

Subtext – n. The underlying personality of a dramatic character as implied or indicated by a script or text. An inner world. A place glimpsed peripherally. Overtones.In screenwriting, subtext is implicit (intimated) versus explicit...

In response to our survey asking about how our followers are using stories, and what challenges you’re encountering, screenwriter Taha Ali asked what it means when “the stakes are high” for a hero. I replied by first...

1. Remind yourself that successful writers don’t struggle nearly as much as you do.2. Don’t write if you don’t feel like it.  Wait until tomorrow when maybe you’ll feel like it.3. Personalize outcomes.  When anyone...

Growing up, script consultant Nicole Saltz was more interested in reading books than screenplays. Heavily influenced by her mother, an English teacher, and her maternal grandmother (“A great lover of literature”), young Nicole, a Toronto...

The relationship between screenwriter and film producer is fundamental to getting a movie made. And few know this better than producer Miriam Segal, founder and managing director of Good Films.Segal, whose father was a writer, was always interested...

The paths writers take toward achieving their career goals are varied, and Terence Winter’s passageway toward television writing included detours into medieval history studies and becoming an attorney—the latter he decided he could do...

REPOST: I recently taught a webinar for The Writers Store on Story Development. In it we talked about the importance of testing your story concept before you end up like Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation lost in a sea of notes and pages with...

Hollywood has a short attention span. Unlike writers, who may have all day to sit and ponder, plotting out their next script, or revising and revising a screenplay until their fingers are numb, the truth is: the people you need to impress with your...