The purpose of every scene is to advance the story. A second and equally important purpose is to reveal something about a character. This revelation can be something new or something different that reveals the same characteristic. For example, in “Ghostbusters,” an early scene shows Bill Murray electrocuting a young man to make him go […]

Kurt Vonnegut wrote several popular books including “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Cat’s Cradle.” Before he wrote novels, he wrote short stories. Since he studied stories most of his life, he came up with eight tips for writing a story: Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel […]

Read many screenplays (even by experienced screenwriters) and you’ll often run into scenes that serve no other purpose than to introduce information either background exposition or character exposition. While exposition is necessary to understand the story, bland, blatant exposition is as exciting to see as reading a dictionary. Instead, bury exposition within a dramatic scene. […]

You rarely see characters in TV shows or movies going to the bathroom. That’s because that action is irrelevant. If an action has no affect on the story, there’s no need to include it. So when writing a screenplay, strip away anything that doesn’t actively contribute to your story. In a novel, authors might get […]

Scenes represent the building block of your story. Although the purpose of every scene is to advance the story, a secondary purpose of every scene is to make the audience experience a strong emotion. Scenes should never be boring. The main main emotion to evoke is your story’s main genre. For example, horror movies must […]

Here’s what many novices do when writing a screenplay. They write a handful of compelling, exciting scenes. However, the rest of the screenplay consists of dull scenes meant to provide exposition and move the plot along to get to the next exciting scene. This never works because it creates a mostly dull screenplay interspersed with […]

Action acts like visual eye candy to keep us entertained. Unfortunately, action by itself is ultimately pointless. After you see the fifth car crash or helicopter explode, more action is never the answer. Action is important only when it has meaning, and that meaning is how does it affect your hero? Examine a pointless scene […]

Exposition is nothing more than crucial information needed to understand the story. In the old days, stage plays used to begin with two servants talking to each other. This stilted conversation existed solely to provide exposition such as: MAID: You know Jennifer, our employer for the past 25 years, is still mourning the death of […]

Many storytellers debate on which is more important, characters or plot. Although both are interconnected, the answer is that characters are more important. If you focus solely on plot, your character risk being nothing more than cardboard, flat images that just parade around to advance the plot. Think of any bad James Bond movie that […]

The two cheapest types of movies to make are horror and comedy stories. That’s because both horror and comedy rarely rely on special effects or expensive sets. Instead, they can often be filmed inexpensively in any location. The key to comedy is not jokes. The characters in a comedy never know they are funny because […]