Most stories rely on a crutch by showing different scenes that take place in multiple locations. However, there’s a group of stories that don’t do this. Such stories force the characters to stay in the same scene/location over and over again. These type of stories are known as time loop stories. The basic idea behind […]
Every story should have a point even if it’s something as simple as “Good triumphs over evil.” Whatever that point of this tory might be, that’s the central theme everything needs to revolve around.d If you’re writing a science fiction story, keep in mind the costs of big budget special effects. Often times science fiction […]
If you want to play baseball, you should practice hitting, running, throwing the ball, and catching as much as possible. If you want to paint, you should practice painting as much as possible. Likewise if you ant to write screenplays, you should practice writing and watching as many movies as possible. The more movies you […]
The most common problem when writing a screenplay is running out of ideas. It’s easy to whip up 30-60 pages of a screenplay in a heat of emotion and inspiration. Then suddenly you run into a dead end and have no idea what to do next. In most cases, you’ll either create a disjointed story […]
The biggest problem many screenwriters make is that they focus solely on coming up with a creative, compelling, and intriguing story. An original idea will immediately grab someone’s attention, but now the hard part is turning that great idea into a great screenplay. The key is that the physical plot is what grabs people’s attention […]
Most people start a screenplay with a log line that summarizes the physical action in the story. The log line for “Die Hard” might be “One man has to fight an army of terrorists alone in a skyscraper.” The log line for “Alien” might be “A starship crew in the future must battle an unstoppable […]
In every story, there’s a hero. You should always have one hero because this is the person who pursues a goal and either achieves it or fails to achieve it. Along the way, the audience roots for the hero to succeed. Besides the hero, there are three other major characters: the villain, the mentor, and […]
Read log lines of movie ideas and they always focus on the physical action, which is great. However, unless the screenwriter goes further and develops an emotional dream, all the best physical action in the world will feel empty and meaningless. One of the latest animated films is “The Mitchells vs. the Machines,” which is […]
Theme divides a story’s plot into the pursuit of two goals. First, there’s an emotional goal that the hero needs. Second, there’s a physical goal that the hero wants. This distinction between need vs. want is crucial. What the hero needs is what will make him or her into a better person. What the hero […]
Watch any good movie and you’ll notice that every part of the story from the minor characters to the different scenes all work together to tell a unified story. Then watch a mediocre movie and you’ll find that the minor characters and scenes often seem unconnected and unrelated, making the story weaker and far less […]