Most screenwriters focus myopically on the hero’s goal. That’s fine, but what makes a story great isn’t whether the hero achieves his goal or not, but how his goal affects others. When you plot your story, just remember that it’s never about your hero. In one sense, your story does revolve around your hero. What […]

The real villain isn’t just a single person or evil organization, but something that goes much deeper. The real villain is the hero himself. In the first “Night at the Museum,” the hero is a down-on-his luck guy who has to take a lowly job as a museum night watchman. To achieve his goal of […]

You can learn from the past on how to write screenplays by studying what has worked before, and what has always worked has been a solid story with likable heroes. Hollywood is in love with remakes. You see remakes of old TV shows (“The Brady Bunch”), old movies (“The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3”), and old […]

No story should be predictable because then the audience loses interest. To make your plot unpredictable, you need plot twists. One of the most famous episodes of the TV show “Night Gallery” is called “The Caterpilllar.” That’s a story about a man who tries to murder another man by placing an ear wig on his […]

Why does Pixar consistently put out quality movies while other studios churn out movies in a hit or miss affair? The answer lies in Pixar’s story telling secrets. Pixar has an incredible track record of successful stories. Their movies are consistently entertaining and interesting, while their competitor’s films are often uneven and haphazard. One universal […]

There’s a big difference between great movies and bad ones. In a great movie, you can point to one or more scenes that define what that movie is about. In bad movies, you’re just watching scenes and images that leave no impression and fade from memory as quickly as you leave the theater. One Pixar […]