Hollywood tends to pump out an astoundingly large number of bad movies. What’s surprising is that these bad movies make the same mistakes over and over again, yet the film directors and writers seem to think A-list stars, special effects, and lots of explosions will substitute for a good script. It won’t. If you want […]

Listen to any good song and you’ll notice that the same notes are played repeatedly with minor variation. Stories need to use repetition as well to emphasize ideas. The first time we see something, it appears interesting. But the second time we see that same idea, then it has a more powerful meaning. In “The […]

Here’s the number one mistake novices make in writing a screenplay. They write scenes that do nothing but explain the story. Watch a mediocre movie and you’ll often find scenes that fail to change or challenge the hero’s life in any meaningful way. In the opening scene of “Don’t Worry Darling,” the hero is balancing […]

Pick any movie and divide its running time in half. In a two hour movie, the midpoint scene occurs at the 60 minute mark. This midpoint scene represents a crucial turning point in any story in three ways: Perhaps the most famous midpoint scene in movie history occurred in “The Crying Game.” That’s where the […]

Every story has a structure. By identifying the main scenes in every story, you can create an outline for any story quickly and easily. One problem when creating a story is that so much happens as multiple characters pursue different goals that it’s easy to lose track of what’s going on.  Every story consists of […]