Many young writers struggle to be decisive in the moments that populate their screenplays. They find it challenging to openly declare and dramatize what a single moment is about. When I push them to do so, they almost always say something to the effect of, “I didn’t want to be…

Structure is perhaps the most teachable aspect of screenwriting. I suspect this is why it gets so much attention in screenwriting education. Other aspects of the craft (characterization, dialogue, and the all-important “voice,” among other things) can often rely more on god-given talent and personal experience. Not so, structure! …

It is tempting to give script coverage more validity than it deserves. After all, someone read your script and wrote their reaction down. It feels formal. Official almost. A proclamation! This is especially true early in your writing career when your confidence stems more from what you believe you’re capable…

It’s a simple test. Silly, yet powerful. It’s a question I encourage my students to ask when trying to determine if a scene is carrying its own weight in a screenplay. The idea behind it is that every scene should be interesting in its own right. There are no throw-away…

I have been repped by five different literary agencies over 25 years. I have had brand new, just-promoted agents, prestige agents, and all those in between. I have only had one agent and two managers through this time that I ended up not liking personally. They were the exception. All…

It is a question repeated time and time again: how do I get representation? The answer is always the same. There is no one way. Everyone is different. “How I broke into the business” stories remain interesting because they all vary so damn much. As you can tell by the…

The second script I ever sold was to a studio with an A-List actor attached through his producing deal on the lot. The lots were full of producer deals back then. My agent actually hated this script and told me to put it on a shelf somewhere and pretend it…

I wrote a Medium story I wrote a few years back on the philosophy behind the IMPROVING THE READ workshop on April 24th. It is worth a read, but what I don’t discuss in that story is WHY I am so adamant about teaching this material and why I think…

I was responding to a post on a WGA Facebook group and my thoughts just kept going and going. It was long, and buried in a thread and I knew no one was going to read it. I am not sure anyone will read this either, of course, but I…