Advice

Writing a first draft all the way through to the end gives you knowledge about the climax of the story. The climax is the point of highest drama in your story, the crowning moment when the thematic significance or deeper meaning becomes clear to the reader. Just as it looks as if all is permanently lost for the protagonist, at the climax she delivers the gift. The climax generally hits a chapter or scene before the final page.The climax determines many of the earlier decisions you need to make in your novel, memoir, and screenplay. The action the protagonist takes...

The winner is... Tyler Marceca - "The Disciple Program""After waking to find his wife dead in their backyard, a man conducts his own investigation, and uncovers the hidden life of a woman he thought he knew."Breaking News: "The Disciple Program" sells to Universal Studios with Mark Wahlberg attached to star and produceThe Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest gives you the unique opportunity to turn this idea into a solid spec screenplay that could be your ticket to Hollywood success, just like last round's winner, Tyler Marceca with The Disciple Program.The Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest is an international competition that facilitates relationships...

David JanollariHead of Programming, MTVDavid Janollari grew up in Rhode Island. He was a popular guy who had a lot of friends. He went to Boston College for two years then transferred to NYU film school. He turned his sights on Hollywood, and a few of his loyal friends went along for the ride. David owes a lot to these friends, especially Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, Monica, and Ross. Do we need to play this out any further or have you figured out by now that Mr. Janollari had a hand in creating the hit show, M*A*S*H? Kidding, he was...

Screenwriters do not write movies.Screenwriters write scripts. And scripts are not movies.Movie audiences are people sitting in a theater, or at home, having a visual experience complete with actors, music, directing, editing and perhaps digital effects. The audience for a script is a reader. And all they have is the written word.When I was starting out, I was told a script is a blueprint for a movie so you should never write anything that can’t directly be seen on the screen. Nor should you indicate how a line should be read because it will insult the actor playing the part....

My recently released book, The Film Director’s Bag of Tricks: How to Get What You Want from Writers and Actors, was obviously designed for directors. But this book is only one leg of the triangle. How about: Actors getting what they need from directors and writers? Or how about: Writers getting what they need from directors and actors? Sounds like two more books. I could start a series like Chicken Soup for the Soul. I’m not about to do that but I do want to talk about something very important that is not in the book: How writers can meet...