Script Strategy

Five Lesser-Known Techniques to Write a Scene  OK–we get it.  Your protagonist enters the scene with a goal, runs into an obstacle, must face a dilemma, and then makes a decision. That basic framework (GODD) is solid, but it’s also the minimum viable product. To wit: knowing how to play Chopsticks doesn’t make you Glenn … Read more

Eavesdropping 101: Listen in Cafés to Improve Your Screenplay Dialogue Too often we’re told to “write realistic dialogue.”  That’s no excuse to transcribe everyday speech verbatim. If you did that, it would sound like shit. Real conversation is rambling, fragmented, repetitive, and often painfully dull. Screenplay dialogue, on the other hand, is compressed and alive … Read more

How to Develop Character Backstory (Without Spoken Exposition) One of the cardinal sins of novice screenwriting is the “info dump”—that moment when a character halts the story to say, “When I was a child, my father left me, and I’ve had trust issues ever since.”  This is precisely when the audience yawns and reflex-checks TikTok.  … Read more

Five Great Car-Based Dialogue Scenes—and What They Teach Screenwriters Most car scenes in movies suck. They’re static, filled with bad exposition, and often used as cheap transitions between more “important” locations. Screenwriters sometimes rely on movement or weird scenarios to make dialogue feel interesting—a strategy given the memorable name “The Pope in the Pool” by … Read more

Successful Morning Routines for Screenwriters: Writing Before the World Wakes Up Inspiration doesn’t always strike on a schedule—but deadlines and distractions arise at any time. In an industry driven by both creativity and productivity, the elusive “perfect writing routine” can provide much-needed consistency. Naturally, many screenwriters identify as night owls, including me. In fact, there’s … Read more

Five Lesser-Known Romantic Comedies — and the Lessons They Teach Screenwriters Today From the sharply-scripted screwballs of the ’30s to the high-concept, cloying, hyper-PC Netflix hits of the 2020s, the genre has continually evolved—and not often for the better.  Many contemporary rom-coms sell because apparently someone–teenage girls?–will always watch them. They are plodding, paint-by-number plots, … Read more

Three-Act vs. Five-Act Structure: How Story Shapes Screenwriting Whether you’re writing a superhero epic or a dialogue-heavy indie drama, the underlying architecture of your script matters just as much as your characters and themes. Without a coherent structure, your story lacks rhythm, progression, and emotional payoff. In screenwriting, the two primary narrative frameworks are the … Read more

7 Proven Ways to Level Up Your Screenwriting Skills The craft of screenwriting is a lifelong education. Mastering it doesn’t happen overnight—it happens page by page, scene by scene, and draft by draft. Screenwriting is storytelling in architecture. Your screenplay is a blueprint–it’s not a completed work–yet this blueprint must evoke emotion, reveal character, advance … Read more

7 Lessons in Comedy Writing from Animal House  “This situation absolutely requires a really stupid and futile gesture be done on somebody’s part.” — Eric “Otter” Stratton Recently, Chuck Palahniuk suggested that his subscribers rewatch the 1978 comedy classic National Lampoon’s Animal House. Not that I really need any excuse, but I hadn’t seen it … Read more