What’s more important? Character or plot? It depends on what type of story you’re writing, but generally, plot should be subservient to character. Rod Serling was one of the most popular playwrights during the golden age of television. He wrote two popular teleplays called “Patterns” and “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” which garnered him tremendous acclaim. […]

What’s the best way to keep an audience’s attention? The two most common ways involve interesting visuals or interesting dialogue. Neither one is better than the other, but you should know how both methods work to keep your screenplay interesting to your audience. When Rod Serling created “The Twilight Zone,” he created a television classic […]

How do you tell a true story? It’s easy, you don’t tell the literal truth. Instead, you dramatize the facts. There’s an old saying that truth is stranger than fiction. I’d like to add a corollary to that and state that fiction is more interesting than truth. The difference between the truth and fiction is […]

Every great movie focuses on a single theme. Every bad movie creates so many loose ends that nothing seems organized, coherent, or relevant. So the secret to writing a great screenplay is to focus on a single theme. Every movie is about one thing. In “A Clockwork Orange,” the theme is the power of choice […]

Every story has a hero and a villain. The hero is the person we want to win. The villain is the person or force that’s stopping the hero from succeeding. Here’s how to create the right type of villain to go against your hero. Every story has a villain. That villain can be a person […]