Think of dominoes lined up on a table where you tap one domino and it pushes over the next domino until they all fall down. That’s how every scene in your story should work. The cause of one scene creates an effect in another scene. For example, think of the opening scene in “Star Wars” […]
Most screenwriters have trouble writing dialogue that sounds natural. Either they write dialogue that vomits up information for the audience to know more about the story, or they write dialogue that serves no purpose. That’s why you should study stage plays because stage plays must grab and hold attention solely through dialogue with minimal action. […]
The most common mistake novices make in writing a screenplay is creating a scene that consists of characters telling the story by reciting details that feel out of place along with being information the characters already know. Scenes that exist solely to give information to the audience are not only boring, but fail to advance […]
Look at the recent box office failures like “The Flash,” “Solo,” “Terminator: Genisys,” or “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” All of these movies had huge budgets ($200 million+), yet all turned into box office disappointments. That proves that lots of special effects, exotic settings, and overwhelming stunts mean nothing if you don’t have […]
You can divide every story into four parts: Act I, Act IIa, Act IIb, and Act III where each Act is roughly the same length. In a two-hour movie, each Act is roughly 30 minutes in length. This is the purpose of each Act: Exposition introduces the hero and what the story is about and […]
Many writers say that the middle of a screenplay, Act II, is the hardest part to write. That’s because it’s usually easiest to start an idea and figure out how to end it, but it’s often much harder to figure out how to get from the beginning all the way to the end. The secret […]
Every story is about conflict. Although most people associate conflict with fist fights, gunfire, and explosions, most conflict occurs through dialogue even if a gun might be involved. In dialogue, there should always be two types of actions: Picture a man and a woman in a fancy restaurant, seated together at a table by themselves. […]
In every story, the hero should be caught in a dilemma. That dilemma forces the hero to either stay stuck in their dead end life or go through the process of changing to become a new and better person. That means every story is really a tug of war between two opposing ideas. Usually this […]