The Art of Dialects (1)

I type these words from my favorite leather chair in my favorite mystery cigar store. For the “Mystery Photo” in the Mar/Apr ’09 issue of Script Mag, I snapped a pic of this very chair with a piece of paper (handwritten by me) that says, “MM SITS HERE.” Hehehe… All the boys are here, too. … Read more

Best o/t Web 30 May

:: Alex Epstein revisits The Exorcist.
:: Script Coverage: A Few Awful Truths.
:: Why bad scripts sell. For six figures
:: Do you read outside your niche? Why not?
:: Drew Pears will co-write The Runaways.
:: Each character must have something at stake.
:: Surviving in L.A. (or not): the Tragic and the Comic.
:: Sex & The City is Scifi! (I’m still not going to see it. Not even for work.)
:: Writers are the gods of their own universes.
:: The Truman Show lives on (but not how you think).
:: Why games don’t work on the big screen: Prince of Persia
:: Will Atlas Shrugged (& other Unfilmables) ever get made?

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Do you have the tools?

One of Celtx’s first three new “Learning Templates” is a tool pack for script development: “The Writer’s Development Kit”. I can highly recommend it, not only because of its ridiculously low price, but also because I wrote it.(*) There has been a lot of confusion about the terms logline, synopsis, and treatment so I try to shed some light on those as … Read more

10 Reasons why movies aren’t novels

Next month, Michael Hauge and Steve Kaplan will be in Australia for two weekends of story classes. This month we run a special guest contribution by Michael Hauge plus we give Melbournians the chance to win a free ticket to the event (worth $445). (continued from here) The principles I outline below hold true for … Read more

A Season of Writing Drama

We have raved before about Yves Lavandier’s book Writing Drama. This time we have something very special to announce to you. Throughout June, July and August we will be running a weekly post covering some of the best excerpts from this book. In addition, if you like what you read, as a reader of the … Read more