Far too many people write lifeless scenes. A typical screenplay consists of 90% expository scenes that do nothing but explain the story, and 10% exciting scenes that incorporate all the exposition introduced by the bulk of the screenplay. This is a formula for failure. What you need to do is make every scene like a […]

Most novices write flat, dull, boring scenes that serve no other purpose than to provide exposition to the story. To write an effective scene, the best approach is to give all characters in a scene a hidden agenda that puts them in direct conflict with the other characters in a scene. In the opening scene […]

The best stories are all about emotions. Nobody watches a movie for the fifth time because they’re surprised by the car chases, gunfire, or helicopter explosions. People watch their favorite movies because they want to re-experience the emotions of their favorite movies all over again. So before writing anything, identify the emotion your story. What […]

The biggest mistake novice screenwriters make is they try to tell a story. Now you may think telling a story is the purpose of a screenplay, but it’s not. The purpose of a screenplay is to entertain. There are many different ways to entertain. You can scare people (horror), make them think (drama), challenge them […]

There’s a standard rule in writing where you must show the audience rather than tell them. In screenwriting, telling occurs when a character says something in dialogue like, “Bob, I know you’ve been laid off for five years and have been divorced for two years, but we’ve been high school friends and I’m telling you […]

“Godzilla vs. King Kong” isn’t a great movie, but it does give audiences exactly what they want. Few people interested in drama will expect “Godzilla vs. King Kong” to satisfy them. Instead, the audience for this movie are people who want to see monsters smashing things and beating each other up. In that regard, “Godzilla […]

The easiest mistake to make when writing a screenplay is to start off telling yours tory. You might think you need to start out telling your story but when you do that, you’ll run out of ideas about halfway and then have no idea how to continue the rest of the way. What you really […]

Before creating any story, identify your theme. Your theme defines what your story is about. Until you know what your story is about, you risk writing unrelated scenes that make no logical sense. When you know your theme, then you can write scenes that not only work together, but also threaten the hero every time. […]

Every scene in your screenplay, from start to finish, must grab the audience’s attention. Fail to do that and you wind up with a boring scene. String together too many boring scenes and you wind up with a boring screenplay. So the key is to make sure every scene, no matter how short, is interesting […]