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How To Gift Yourself A Weekend Writing Retreat

  • Holly Payberg-Torroija
  • .June 28, 2025
As much as I'm always advocating for writer's to adopt a daily writing practice, knowing that it's the only tried and true way to ensure you are always moving forward. No matter how busy life gets. There are definitely times, as a writer, when you really need to give yourself the gift of total immersion and focus. To be able to ...
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Why Every Screenwriter Needs a Table Read — And How It Launches Careers

  • June 24, 2025
There’s a moment in every screenwriter’s journey when the script on the page needs to become something more—something real. You’ve stared at the words, revised them, heard them in your head a thousand times. But it isn’t until those words are spoken—by real actors, in real time—that you truly understand what’s working and what i...
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The Biggest Mistake Writers Make

  • Holly Payberg-Torroija
  • .June 19, 2025
As a writing coach, one of the biggest mistakes I see writers make, is that they try to write their story before they’ve given themselves the proper time and space to go deep and truly know their story. They expect themselves to somehow go straight from having an idea, to writing pages that flow out looking close to a near perfe...
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Meet the 2025 ISA Diversity Initiative Selections + Honorable Mentions!

We are thrilled to announce the Selections and Honorable Mentions of our 2025 Diversity Initiative!  We created the ISA Diversity Initiative to break barriers and spotlight underrepresented writers with bold, authentic stories and this year’s submissions absolutely blew us away.From powerful personal narratives to wildly origina...
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Top Reads Summer 2025

The ISA Top Reads list for Summer 2025 has been announced! The writers' projects have been evaluated by multiple ISA readers, advancing through multiple stages of the Writing Gig consideration process, contests, and fellowship applications.After being heavily considered for our gig mandates and other submissions, these writers a...
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ISA Staff Picks: June 2025

The team at the ISA is excited to showcase these exceptional screenplays and their talented writers as top selections for June 2025. These scripts are handpicked for their strength in craft and originality, these projects are now being reviewed for potential submission to ISA-vetted agents, managers, producers, and industry exec...
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TEN TAKEAWAYS from a HORROR WORKSHOP with FOUR WORKING PRODUCERS

I recently completed the inaugural run of my “Story Maps Horror & Thriller Seminar,” a 4-week course wherein I guided a small group of screenwriters to develop original concepts for films and television series in the hottest genres in entertainment. Along the way, I brought in four guest speakers, industry veterans with credits ...
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Coverfly Is Closing. Here’s Why the ISA Has Always Been the Perfect Home.

  • May 22, 2025
As many of you may have heard, Coverfly is closing its doors. While this news may feel unsettling for some in the writing community, we want to take a moment to reassure you, our ISA members, that you’ve already aligned yourself with the right platform—one that’s always prioritized writers, one that continues to grow, and one th...
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Crafting Dialogue That Pops: 10 Tips for Writing Memorable Conversations

  • May 21, 2025
When it comes to screenwriting, dialogue can make or break your script. It’s not just about what characters say—it’s about what they don’t say, how they say it, and how their words reveal who they are. Great dialogue deepens character, drives the story forward, and keeps readers glued to the page.According to Creative Screenwrit...
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ISA Staff Picks: May 2025

The ISA team is proud to spotlight these screenplays and their writers as standout examples in their respective genres and formats for May 2025. These projects are currently under consideration for submission to ISA-approved agents, managers, producers, and production companies actively seeking fresh talent and high-quality mate...
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Write From The Wound, Publish From the Scar

  • Holly Payberg-Torroija
  • .April 15, 2025
I attended a retreat facilitated by Elizabeth Gilbert and Rachel Cargle, and this was just one, of the many, important wisdom bombs Liz dropped on us at this wonderful 3 day retreat.   She said it in response to a question one of the participants asked: was it better to write from the wound or the scar? And I felt her answer was...
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Top Reads Spring 2025

The ISA Top Reads list for Spring 2025 has been announced! The writers' projects have been evaluated by multiple ISA readers, advancing through multiple stages of the Writing Gig consideration process, contests, and fellowship applications.After being heavily considered for our gig mandates and other submissions, these writers a...
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Who is Your Favorite Antagonist and Why? Mine is Ted Lasso.

  • Holly Payberg-Torroija
  • .April 9, 2025
Of all your favorite books, shows and movies: who is your favorite Antagonist and why?  I know for some of you that this is like asking you to play favorites amongst your babies, but just pick the one that is striking you at the moment.  For me, my favorite Antagonist, at the moment, is Ted from Ted Lasso. I know some of you mig...
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ISA Staff Picks: April 2025

  • Felicity Wren
  • .April 3, 2025
The ISA staff has selected these screenplays and their writers as outstanding examples in their genres and formats for April 2025. These scripts are being considered for submission to ISA approved agents, managers, producers, and production companies actively seeking talented writers to represent or compelling projects to produc...
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9 Game-Changing Screenwriting Lessons

Everything in life has a pattern. So does a screenplay.Writing a screenplay (or a novel or anything else) can be a lot like trying to assemble IKEA furniture without the manual - frustrating, a little chaotic, and filled with moments where you genuinely wonder your purpose in life (and let’s face it, those IKEA manuals aren’t mu...
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5 Writer Hacks That Will Save Your Story

Screenwriting is an art, and it’s never easy. When we think it’s easy, we’re probably missing something. That’s not to say that it’s supposed to be hard just for hard’s sake (I mean…telling someone a story and actually making them feel something over the course of two hours or an entire season of TV is tricky business), but it i...
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Horror at the Oscars: On "The Substance" and Crafting Your Own Nightmare

When we think of the Oscars, we don't immediately think of horror movies. But it happens. This year, we've got The Substance with five nominations and Nosferatu with four. Alien: Romulus can claim one nomination. Academy-lauded horror films of the past include The Sixth Sense, Get Out, Misery, The Exorcist, and Best Picture-winn...
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ISA Staff Picks: March 2025

The ISA staff has selected these screenplays and their writers as outstanding examples in their genres and formats for March 2025. They are being submitted to agents, managers, producers, and production companies actively seeking talented writers to represent or compelling projects to produce.Staff Picks:PRODIGAL by Chris Courtn...
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The Relentless Road to “Back to the Future”

There’s one trait every successful screenwriter must have, and it’s not just talent. It’s not even just hard work. It’s persistence. Grit. The ability to keep pushing forward when every door slams shut in your face. I was thinking last night about how to talk to emerging screenwriters about the necessity of more than just hard w...
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‘Yes, And’-ing Your Story Into Existence: The Sixth Sense Edition

Let’s do some more “Yes, and’ing” of movie stories, shall we? This time, I’ve looked at a screenplay that I originally covered on the job as a professional Reader, then watched it sell in a huge $3+ million deal for M. Night Shyamalan to write and direct the film that not only went on to become a huge hit, but at the time it bec...

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