Advice — expert series

I would never write about someone who is not at the end of his rope. --Stanley Elkin Many writers mistake the outer life of a character for the inner life, assume that by offering a physical description and a few surface details, they have created a character. In actuality, the creating is just beginning. In real life it might suffice to know very little about someone else. Take, for instance, a company. A company can only ask a potential employee so much--if they probe into his sexual preferences or religious beliefs, they could get sued. If they probe deeper, into...

Comedy has always taken a supporting role to the more serious Hollywood genres. During this awards season, it's easy to recognize the year's great dramas and epics; however, 2003 was a good year for well-written comedy and romantic comedy. And the one upstart film that defied critics, warmed audience hearts, and filled distributor coffers was a comedy about a big fat Greek wedding. If anything, its success proves that during this time of economic uncertainty and global tensions, we need a well-told tale that makes us feel good about ourselves. But is comedy's sole purpose to entertain the audience? And...

WGA REGISTRATION vs. COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION For screenwriters who use the latest version of Final Draft ® to help write their script, one nifty feature is the ability to register the screenplay with the WGA-West Intellectual Property Online Registry with the touch of a button. Many (if not most) screenwriters register all of their scripts with the WGA Registry, and, believing that they have done all that is necessary to protect their script, they neglect to register the script with the U.S. Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.Imagine their surprise when someone steals their screenplay and they learn for the...

1. Your First Five Scripts One of the most frequent questions I am asked is Is my script ready? Whether or not a specific script is ready is open to interpretation, based on who is reading the script. However, here are some guidelines I have developed based on my own experience as a development executive and after talking to producers, managers and agents. How do you know when you are ready? The first three to five scripts you write are usually for yourself -- they are your experiments. They are often not yet good enough to be submitted to a...

Claude Lévi-Strauss, the social anthropologist, believed that all myths are true and all versions of a myth are the true version. There's a reason that people tell conflicting stories about the volcano god -- did he marry the sea goddess, or did he marry the rain goddess? Both versions were told and re-told because the listeners sensed a truth in each. Conflicting myths about Writer's Block both have zealous adherents. One group of true believers insists that Writer's Block does not exist. If you feel stymied, they say, you can just put your head down and do the work anyway,...