Advice — expert series

(Excerpt from "Now Write! Screenwriting: Screenwriting Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers", edited by Sherry Ellis & Laurie Lamson)A film, by its very nature, is a visual art form. However, I’ve found that new screenwriters tend to forget that they’ve ever seen a film in their lives. Too often, inexperienced writers go right for wall-to-wall yakking when writing a scene or sequence for a movie. While verbal dialogue drives television scenes, you want to write dramatically effective cinematic scenes for a feature film. An effective approach is to use The Seven Elements of a Scene or Sequence. Use them...

There’s a common misconception among new or ‘unrepresented’ screenwriters that only agents, managers, and producers can open Hollywood’s gates, and that without at least one of the three, it’s virtually impossible to sell a script or sidestep Hollywood’s frustrating barriers to entry. The truth is that representation or established producers can, of course, be a huge help, but they are by no means your only way in. Believing this is the first step to recognizing a massive pool of industry insiders – that aren’t agents or managers – who can also help launch your screenwriting career. You have options, lots...

As an aspiring novelist or screenwriter, it can be frustrating to work at a day job that doesn’t allow for much creativity. Fortunately, there are avenues you can explore for bringing in a steady stream of income that incorporates your passion for writing. Below are 5 writing gigs that can turn into full-time careers with enough perseverance. You’re only limited by your own imagination! Affiliate Blogger Sure, most writers know what a blog is, but many don’t realize the potential cash flow that comes with being part of an affiliate program. A marketing tactic employed by many online businesses, an...

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create." - Albert EinsteinYES, BUT CAN I WRITE?This chapter hopes to journey you to the most illogical and wonderful places in yourself. And it won’t always make sense. There are no experts on how you should be creative. In fact, my first rule is: Ignore everything I or anyone else says that might impede your natural process and inhibit your courage to create. What works for one might disable another’s inspirational process.Human experience is unknowably...

Sick of being controlled by other people’s plans? Frustrated by rules nobody asked you about? How would you like to play God and create a world according to you? Well, you can – write a pilot! Because that’s what a pilot for an original series is: A whole new world. And you get to create it – in your own image. God being God, it took Him/Her a week (depends how you choose to interpret your Bible, of course) to create the world, but you being you – with many more needs than God, like getting another cup of coffee,...