Advice — expert series

Based on a true story is one of those unfortunate catch-phrases that usually has the opposite effect in courting a producer's enthusiasm than most writers assume. Of the several hundred projects a year I review as a script consultant, nearly 20% are prefaced with some variation on the theme "Everything in this plot really, truly happened." Translated: "That's why I know/hope/expect you will really, truly like it."Whether such events happened personally to the author or someone else, however, these claims of authenticity garner pretty much the same reaction as whenever I see a car sporting one of those perky yellow...

A great query letter is your key to unlocking an executive's door. Take your time and be as thoughtful about your query as you were when writing your screenplay. Industry professionals view query letters as a reflection of the writer's screenplay and writing skills, so the assumption will be if the query letter is poor, then the script will be, too. A query letter serves three main purposes: It opens the door to establishing a relationship with an executive; It requests permission to legally submit your screenplay and; It creates a paper trail, which provides a written record of everywhere...

If you saw the season-ending episode of Monk, do you remember the clue that helped catch the killer?Me, neither.In the recent thriller Fractured, what was the mistake Anthony Hopkins made that proved he killed his wife?You got me.My point, and I do have one, is that often writers think the most important aspect of a good mystery is the ingenuity of the crime, the unraveling of the clues. Which is why many writers are scared to death of even trying to write a mystery or thriller.Fear no more.Yes, viewers of mysteries and thrillers like tightly-plotted narratives, clever red herrings, and...

The phone rang.It was a big shot producer from a major studio. "Hey, Ken, I love what you've done! What a great idea! I'm gonna steal it from you."Was he talking about one of my scripts? No. What he was talking about was - well, read on.Let's say you've had a pitch meeting. (And I'll talk about pitching later in this article.) The producer likes what he's heard and the usual line is "Send me a one-page synopsis."So you go home, knock yourself trying to condense your 118-page screenplay into one page.And what you write sucks.It reads flat, you've left...

When characters share emotions with the audience, it deepens the experience of the story. Viewers are made available to the storyteller through emotion: writers seek an emotional connection with their audience the same way actors and directors do. A smart plot is intellectually satisfying, but movies are about more than that. Audiences expect emotional stories. A clever plot is satisfying on its own, but one that fools and surprises us as much as the characters is all the more satisfying because in movies we like being manipulated, startled and stunned. But writers who get carried away with emotion can sacrifice...