Author: admin (Page 2 of 2)

Screenwriting tip of the day; Read 1 Script A Week (Free Scripts)

March 17, 2016 / admin

Screenwriter and blogger Scott Myers created a simple formula for success that involves completing 4 goals per week.

Scott Myers 4 magic numbers for you to remember:

1, 2, 7, 14.

1: Read 1 screenplay per week.
2: Watch 2 movies a week.
7: Write 7 pages per week.
14: Work 14 hours per week prepping a story.

Regarding goal #1. Pick from these 70 screenplays,– 12 Years A Slave, Argo, Flight, Gravity, Lincoln, Moonrise Kingdom, Mud, Prisoners, Promised Land, The Social Network, The Wolf Of Wall Street, Zero Dark Thirty – and more — Many of them have won Academy Awards, many have been nominated. Try to read one great screenplay a week. Download them here for FREE.

Download 70 Great Screenplays here, legally, for FREE.

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Screenwriting tip for the day; The “great Idea” Myth.

March 16, 2016 / admin

A lot of writers actually have an awesome idea for a movie, but they can’t execute the script at a high level. They haven’t been writing long enough, or they haven’t gotten enough solid feedback on their writing, and learned how to write better. They haven’t reached professional levels.

So, they write what they can and say to themselves, “the studio will see there’s a great idea in there.” Not true. Producers want to see a highly level of execution. Solid writing. A great idea like “a coming of age love story on the Titanic”, poorly executed, would not sell.

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Screenwriting tip of the day; Managers vs. Agents

March 15, 2016 / admin

“…managers in general tend to be more accessible than agents. And unlike with most agents, query letters CAN still open doors with some managers. A.B. Fischer gets “a ton of queries, and I read every single one. I don’t respond to most of them, but if something catches my eye, I’ll absolutely read it. You never know where you’re going to find a client.”

—from a blog by Jim Cirile.

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How To Stop Procrastinating For Screenwriters — 9 Best Tips

March 3, 2016 / admin

By David Silverman, MA, LMFT
~ 3 min read

According to writer-therapist Dennis Palumbo, a friend, Facebook friend and personal mentor, procrastination is ultimately about a fear of being judged. He tells his clients (screenwriters, tv writers, and novelists), that instead of obsessing about it, they should write about it, as a dialogue with themselves, or as if they were writing a letter to themselves.

1. Ironically, often just writing about procrastination gets a writer writing, and, this is in itself a cure. This simple process helps many of his clients. Further exploration of these underlying beliefs can be done in therapy, but that’s not something you can do now.

(If you do want therapy, remember Dennis is out in the Godforsaken Valley somewhere, while I’m centrally located in West LA).

BuddyHive.com is a website that links procrastinators up to “buddies,” who will hold them accountable. Without going into therapy, you can look inward, and try to figure out the nature of the kinds of task you find difficult and which emotions or behaviors are at play. Examples are:

Unpleasant tasks, complex projects, fear of failure (lack of self confidence) and fear of success, indecision, lack of interest, and distraction (or lack of focus). They recommend:

2. Complete unpleasant tasks first.
3. Break complex jobs into smaller, more manageable tasks.
4. With fears, maintain focus on the end result, and remember how good it will feel to finish.
5. For indecision, make a deadline to make a decision, and keep to it.
6. For lack of interest, schedule tasks for when you’re at your peak and reward yourself.
7. For distraction, make it a rule not to leave the desk until a smaller task is done and prioritize.

If you sign up at BuddyHive.com, you can take advantage of their free “buddy system.” Simply login and they’ll assign you a “buddy.” Ask for your buddy’s help in holding you accountable to completing specific tasks. You’ll provide the same service for them

Where Do Great Film Story Ideas Come From?

February 11, 2016 / admin

How do you come up with your screenplay story ideas? For me, some of the best ideas have come from reading non-fiction. For example, I was reading a psychology text about agoraphobia, which is a fear of open spaces, crowds, and it often keeps people housebound, afraid to go outside.

I was thinking about some films I’d seen in which a police officer teams up with an unlikely partner to solve a crime. For example in 48 Hours, an officer is allowed to free a prisoner (played by Eddie Murphy) for 48 hours to help him solve a crime. The script make for a suspenseful, yet comic thriller.

I was looking for something in that genre, when I hit on the idea of a highly anxious agoraphobic who finally works up the courage to cross the street and take a walk in the park. He has a breakthrough, and makes it to the park only to witness a mob hit.

The hitman gets a good look at him before escaping. I decided to pair him up with a fearless, and freewheeling female cop to solve this murder. The big twist then, was that now the mobsters knew where he lived, he was no longer safe at home.

Together, he and this fearless female cop have to run around town, together, she protecting him, while solving the crime. The whole time they are just one step ahead of the killers. The agoraphobic (picture a young Woody Allen) has to overcome his fears in the process.

So there’s an example, reading about this psychological condition. I was able to sell the story to a big production company.

Where else to writers turn for help in crafting their stories? Here are some quotes from some very famous writers:

Write in recollection and amazement for yourself. ~ Jack Kerouac

I write out of my intellectual experience. ~ Tom Stoppard

You write about what you know. ~ Larry David

And if you don’t live, you have nothing to write about. ~ James Maynard Keenan

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it. ~ Anais Nin

Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader. ~ Joseph Joubert

I write books to find out about things. ~ Rebecca West

Writing a story … is simply an exploration of the nature of behavior: why people do what they do, how it affects others, how we change and grow, and what decisions we make along the way. ~ Lois Lowry

I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear. ~ Joan Didion

If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. ~ Toni Morrison

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come the most unsought for are commonly the most valuable. ~ Francis Bacon

The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can. ~ Neil Gaiman

I dare you all to write one more thing that you won’t say to my face. ~ Marilyn Manson

Write books only if you are going to say in them the things you would never dare confide to anyone. ~ Emile M. Cioran

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. ~ Cyril Connolly

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it. ~ Anais Nin

Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader. ~ Joseph Joubert

Write in recollection and amazement for yourself. ~ Jack Kerouac

Usually, I walk and think about things. When I come across a thought that makes me laugh, I write it down. ~Demetri Martin

I like to write when I feel spiteful. It is like having a good sneeze. ~ D. H. Lawrence

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for. ~ Ray Bradbury

And by the way, everything in life is writable about, if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~ Sylvia Plath

Get my free top 10 resources for screenwriters, including how to read Save the Cat free, how to raise money to make your film, how to get your script online, or blasted to agents and producers without an agent. It’s FREE.