rowan

How to Write a Story With a Message for Screenwriters (Without Being Totally Fucking Obnoxious) As screenwriters, it is our place–our job, if you will–to describe the world as we would like to see it. This is a vital practice, because it allows the viewer to imagine a world of possibility beyond the never-hits-bottom shitshow … Read more

How to Write a Hybrid Concept for Screenwriters — With Examples Hybrid Concept is an unholy desecration of Concept that is useful as little more than a marketing tool. So why learn how to write a Hybrid Concept logline? Simple: a Hybrid Concept logline creates a shortcut to emotion by referring to very obvious films—preferably ones … Read more

What the Hell is a Low Concept Film?  Low Concept is a bit of a strange idea.  On the surface, it might be difficult to see how Low Concept films would sell at all, at least by the core concept behind them.  In fact, these films are only called “Low Concept” insofar as they are … Read more

How to Write a Logline for Your Screenplay: Five Examples — With Exercises! The point of a good logline is to appeal to the reader as quickly as possible. What you’re trying to do is to put enough information into the logline to present the hook of the film and make the reader ask to … Read more

John Yorke’s Five-Act Structure for Screenwriters (Case Study: Fight Club)  There are screenwriting books that everyone references, and there are great screenwriting books. There are obviously a lot fewer of the latter, but John Yorke’s Into the Woods is one of them. There’s probably a good reason that Into the Woods gets fewer name-checks than, … Read more

Five Examples of the All is Lost for Screenwriters The protagonist’s progress is destroyed in one key moment. Her goal lies in shambles; the path forward now seems impossible. In Blake Snyder terms, this is known as the All is Lost moment.  This doesn’t necessarily mean literal death, although sometimes there is an actual death … Read more

How to Write a Scene (or at least How I Write a Scene) Reader, please note: this is a distillation of my process. Yours might be different. I’d love to learn more about how you write scenes, particularly if it’s markedly different from this.  What follows is how I break down scene construction from intention … Read more

Just Enough Chaos: the Rough Draft of Your Screenplay On one hand, you need structure: some kind of scaffolding to prevent the whole story from collapsing in on itself.  On the other hand, too much structure and you risk killing off the spontaneity, surprise, and strange energy that makes a screenplay feel alive. Famed film … Read more

Idea Theft and Other Pointless Concerns No one is going to steal your fucking idea. It’s just not that special. Get over yourself. (wait for it… wait for it…)  Now that we’ve cleared the room of the idiots, let’s get down to what I mean here. This is not an attack, but a friendly goad. … Read more