Advice

I was listening to a speaker talk to a group of us the other night and 45 minutes into it, I was looking for the door. The subject was the speaker's life and I have to tell ya, it wasn't grabbin' me. Incident after incident was unveiled, stories about the speaker as a teen, adult, and married man seemed to be of the had-to-be-there variety. And then, magically, he came to a story that tied it all together. It was a simple moment in which he realized what his life had meant. And I got it! Suddenly all the stories...

We are taught many things in school, but all too often, this is linear learning, textbook learning. I can remember sitting in classrooms as a child staring aimlessly out of the window at passing clouds. The teacher's verdict was I was wasting my time, yet who is to say that daydreaming is less valuable than memorizing a list of facts? Thomas Edison was a daydreamer. He pondered, "What if there could be light in a small bulb powered by electricity?" Non-creatives often forget how important unscheduled time is for a writer. This seems particularly true of those who hire writers....

I was sitting in a well-furnished office on the 20th Century Fox lot, asking James L. Brooks ("Terms of Endearment," "As Good as It Gets," "Broadcast News") about the art and craft of screenwriting. "I never knew anybody," he was saying, "who ever got a Writers Guild card who didn't have a hard time when somebody said, 'What do you do for a living?' saying, 'I'm a writer.' Your voice always catches on 'a writer,'" Brooks said. "From the earliest stages, it's what your secret thought was that you wanted to be and what of course you knew was impossible...

In real life, some people skate from one success to the next. Others hit a flat-line long before they ever actually die. Unlike people, all story characters suffer both ups and downs throughout the entire story. These reversals play out in three major plot threads: Dramatic Action, Character Emotional Development, and the Thematic Significance. In other words, a story presents challenges that force a character to rethink her views and show what the ultimate transformation means overall. Three Major Plot Threads Plot Thread One Dramatic Action filled with conflict, tension, suspense, or curiosity provides excitement. The Dramatic Action plotline gives...

How many times have you heard someone say, "I have a great idea for a movie," and then never do anything with it? They don't remember it later or they never actually put words on paper. On top of that, there are many people who think they have a good idea for a movie - and it's really not. It all starts with the idea but there's much more to it. It's not as easy as people think. Most people do not realize the time and effort it takes to flesh out an idea, from the inception of an idea...