Advice — m.a.

Reader Alexa Adams from Milford, CT asks My scene count is making my screenplay too long, but I can't see cutting any of the scenes I've written. What should I do? Expert Martha Alderson replies. The job of a good writer is to know which scenes to cut and which ones to keep. You, as a writer, needed to write each and every one of those scenes to better understand the characters. A movie-goer or reader needs only scenes that work on a multitude of levels at once. Tips: 1) Write your project all the way through each draft. If...

Every story spans a period of time. Story can be defined as conflict shown in scene, meaning that most writers will treat time in scene rather than in summary. An example of a partial scene from Rick Bragg's memoir: Ava's Man: "Charlie felt the hot rush of shot fly past his face, and his legs shook under him with the boom of the gun. But it was a clean miss, and he started to run at Jerry, closing the distance even as Jerry fished in his pocket for another load. Twenty feet. Jerry cursed and broke open the breech. Twelve...

The toughest part of any writing project is crafting the middle. Why so daunting? The Middle of most projects makes up a whopping 1/2 of the entire page count or scene count. The moment the main character leaves the Beginning and enters the heart of the story world, a door slams shut. Nothing will ever be the same again. Any lingering thought the protagonist has of turning back vanishes. Not so with the writer. When faced with the long, empty expanse of the Middle, many writers catch the "going back to the beginning" bug. That is, they continually go back...

If you make explicit what you already know intuitively about the structure of movies and stories, you'll have yourself a conscious plotting tool. The rhythm of story is in all of us right now, especially for those who were read to as youngsters and continue to read today. Storytellers often intuitively tap into this rhythm and are able to weave all three plot lines without much conscious thought to structure. When they get stuck, it is always because one or more of the three elements has been ignored by: * Concentrating on action only, forgetting that character provides interest and...

If you make explicit what you already know intuitively about the structure of movies and stories, you'll have yourself a conscious plotting tool. The rhythm of story is in all of us right now, especially for those who were read to as youngsters and continue to read today. Storytellers often intuitively tap into this rhythm and are able to weave all three plot lines without much conscious thought to structure. When they get stuck, it is always because one or more of the three elements has been ignored by: * Concentrating on action only, forgetting that character provides interest and...