An astonishing number of novice screenwriters seem to be creating screenplays that set up sequels for their own story. They look at the success of recent movies like “The Hunger Games” and “The Maze Runner” to claim that studios want stories that can spawn multiple sequels. Here’s the major flaw with that type of thinking. […]
In the 2012 time travel movie “Looper,” the hero is a hit man who kills people sent back from the future. One day he finds that an older version of himself has been sent back for his younger self to kill. The young version of the hero eventually has to battle the older version of […]
The other day I saw a bad movie where the opening scene started like this. First, an airplane taxis to the airport terminal. Second, the hero walks through the airport. Third, the hero gets in a taxi cab and takes off. Real exciting, huh? Too many bad movie directors and screenwriters mistake mindless and boring […]
Here’s a simple question to ask yourself. Why are you writing? Far too many people think that writing a novel or screenplay is easy and a quick path to getting rich overnight. While it’s possible, it’s also possible to win the lottery by finding the winning ticket in the trash can. However, chances are good […]
There’s no story without a villain of some kind. Even if that villain is a force of nature, you need to find a way to personify that abstract villain. In the 1972 “The Poseidon Adventure,” the rising water is the real villain, but it’s hard to fight against rising sea water. That’s why the hero […]
Visit Crackle and you’ll see plenty of unknown movies that in most cases are absolutely horrible. However, use them for inspiration. First, watch them to see how not to create a story. Most bad movies rely heavily on cliches and predictable action sequences. The characters are simply people running around performing lots of physical action but […]
How can you tell if your story is any good? If it doesn’t involve death of some kind, your story probably isn’t any good. It’s easy to see how death is a prime motivator in action/thriller stories like “Avatar,” “Skyfall,” or “American Hustle.” In those stories, the hero risks getting killed. The hero must either […]
When Disney was making “Frozen,” they ran into a roadblock. They didn’t know what to do about the hero (Anna) and the villain (Elsa). Then someone got the bright idea to make the two of them sisters. That decision alone, according to Business Insider, helped make “Frozen” one of the better Disney movies in cartoon […]
If you read most books on writing a novel, they suggest you create a backstory for your characters. The main point of any backstory isn’t to throw random information about your character like what school he or she went to or what type of pets they owned as a kid. Instead, the real purpose of […]
When plotting your story, always think of action and reaction. That means something interesting happens and then something else happens as a result. This constant chain of action/reaction keeps your story moving at all times, which holds the audience’s interest. What happens if your story lacks this action/reaction dynamic? Then you’ll likely get a boring […]