“I made a huge error in the script-writing process. I put the car crash at the midpoint. In the script it’s page 60 and we shot it like that,” says Ben Younger, screenwriter of Bleed for This. Check out ScreenwritingU's interview with him to see how he fixed it.
Classic screenplays can teach you story structure, they can teach you technique, and they can help you draw conclusions about why certain aspects of story have gone out of fashion, why some remain, and why others should make a comeback.
One bit of advice that writers are always given is: read, read, read. For screenwriters that advice is sometimes: watch, watch, watch. But only watching movies, and not reading scripts, can be a real mistake. Reading screenplays, particularly of movies you respect, can be an invaluable experience.
How would you tackle the princess story in 2016? Trolls writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger flip the genre of beautiful helpless girls on its head.
We usually think of Shakespeare as one of the most uniquely gifted writers of all time. But the truth is that very few of his stories are "original" in our sense of the word. In fact, only two of Shakespeare's thirty-eight plays have no known source. The rest were stolen -- that's right, stolen -- from specific, identifiable sources.
Halloween is upon us, so we thought it was a good time to take a closer look at the ever-evolving (and ever-lucrative) horror genre. Here's our guide to 13 horrific sub-genres.
You need to know about The Blood List, an annual survey of screenplays compiled of the best dark scripts that fit into the wide horror genre. We sat down with The Blood List creator, Kailey Marsh, to find out more.
Let's face it: not everyone who reads your work is going to like it. Some songs make you want to get up and dance, and some don't. That's the nature of the beast. So let's go over a few of the common responses from Hollywood producers, agents and managers and think about what they mean for you and your work.
Normally, we spend a lot of time trying to make our characters likeable—or tearing our hair out when people say they’re not. So, how do you handle your characters when you don’t exactly want your audience to like them? How do you make them watchable and compelling? Here are five tips to doing just that.
Have you ever hit a wall exactly at the moment when you should be feeling the most accomplished? Welcome to analysis paralysis, otherwise known as overthinking.