One of the hardest decisions a screenwriter has to make is deciding what you need to tell your audience and what you need to keep from the audience. How do you keep an audience in suspense while also keeping them informed? How do you make sure they understand your story without spoon-feeding it to them in a way that feels patronizing and belittling? How do … Continue reading Writing About Writing: The Well-Informed Mystery Paradox
I done messed up. I’ve been trying my very best to get each and every blog post of this daily challenge up before midnight. Due to circumstances, today that did not happen. It is currently 12:55 a.m. as I am writing this. This blog post is overdue. One of the hardest parts of being a writer is that it’s ridiculously easy to say you couldn’t … Continue reading Writing About Writing: Know Thyself
I am a firm believer that the most frustrating type of movie is not a bad one, but one just good enough to show you the potential it failed to reach. I’m talking about the movies that WANTED to be hardcore action flicks that wasted a little too much time on emotional drama. I’m talking about the movies that could’ve been ridiculously good horror movies … Continue reading Writing About Writing: Commitment Is Key
Maybe I’m beating a dead horse at this point, but thinking through your characters is really REALLY important. And I think sometimes conventional writing exercises designed to help you with characterization aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. (See Writing About Writing: A Case Against Character Bios) When I first realized that I enjoyed creative writing, I oftentimes would “characterize” simply by thinking about the … Continue reading Writing About Writing: A Case for Something Instead of Character Bios
I am a bit of an anomaly as I am an extroverted writer. Maybe it’s not as exceptional as I perceive it is, but I always think of writing as a very introspective activity. But while extroversion sometimes makes it difficult to lock myself away and crank out pages the way I sometimes wish I could, I think in other ways it really benefits me. … Continue reading Writing About Writing: Go Meet Some People
I have a soft spot for dialogue. There. I said it. It’s a screenwriting sin, I know. You’re not supposed to write too much dialogue. It’s maybe the one note every screenwriter has heard: “Less dialogue. More action.” Or maybe it’s just a note I hear time and time again because I have a soft spot for dialogue and write too much of it. The … Continue reading Writing About Writing: Let’s Talk About Dialogue
There are certain things that you’re either obsessed with or you just plain don’t understand. Competitive cup stacking. CBS’s Big Brother. Professional wrestling. Pineapple on pizza. Musicals. But regardless of whether or not you actually enjoy musicals you can learn SO much from them. In a good musical, the songs actually help to advance the story. They don’t just reiterate information we already know. Now to be … Continue reading Writing About Writing: The Songs in Every Musical and What They Can Teach You About Story Structure
There’s a huge paradox with screenwriting, or really storytelling in any medium. You have to make stuff the same, but different. Your protagonist needs to be special, but also universally relatable. Your story needs to be fresh and original, but you also can’t really stray too far from audience expectations either or else you risk being “too out there” or “experimental, but it just didn’t … Continue reading Writing About Writing: Make It the Same, But Different
I sincerely believe that a villain can make or break a story. There’s nothing that ruins an otherwise good story quite like an underdeveloped villain. Now, it’s worth mentioning that not every script needs a traditional “villain.” Sometimes the protagonist and antagonist is the same character, fucking up their own life and then finding ways to overcome their challenges. Sometimes two characters serve as antagonist … Continue reading Writing About Writing: Three Strategies For Writing A Good Villain
So I got this e-mail a little while back, but it turned out that recently a script I wrote was an Official Selection of the 2018 Smashcut Screenplay Competition. This signifies that my script was among the top 35 submissions. I tell you this for a couple of reasons. One is that I hope as you read any of my writing advice you understand that … Continue reading Writing About Writing: Your girl got herself some laurels!
Butcher Thoughts 