Screenwriting Tips

What Makes a Great Antagonist?

February 9, 2015 By Matt Lazarus Leave a Comment

Q: What do you think makes a great antagonist? Do they always have to have a legit reason (at least to them) of why they are doing bad things? Is it as simple as having a few quirks that people hate?

A: Which is more dramatically affecting: An antagonist who has a great reason for doing his job who never actually meets the protag (rare, but some examples exist) or an antagonist who is never explained, but very present, who takes a perverse, almost sexual thrill in hurting and humiliating the hero?
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Second Act Screenwriting Tip

November 17, 2014 By Matt Lazarus Leave a Comment

When people write loglines or a “premise test,” they often write one that misses the meat of the story. Stories aren’t just about the setup of an idea, it’s about the execution of that idea. That execution occurs in the second act.

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Don’t Write in Variables. Commit To Specifics.

October 22, 2014 By Matt Lazarus 2 Comments

When I’m coaching a client, I usually run into some version of this conversation:

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Five Ways That Story Coaching Helps Your Screenwriting

October 13, 2014 By Matt Lazarus Leave a Comment

Story coaching is the best, most efficient way to get better as a writer. It begins when a writer hires me for a specific project. They’ll tell me what they want to accomplish and what’s preventing them from executing it to their satisfaction. I’ll lay out a series of exercises and actionable steps that slice the huge project into a series of small, manageable ones. It’s an individual process, every writer is different, every writer benefits from a different approach.
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Intro to Loglines

September 22, 2014 By Matt Lazarus Leave a Comment

Question: Should I write a Story Map before I begin writing a draft?

Answer: Sure, if you can. But you’re going to run into a problem. If you can’t tell your story in 75 words, you can’t tell your story.

Most beginners have trouble articulating their movie in a a few sentences. This is a learnable skill.

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Breaking Down Story Maps

September 17, 2014 By Matt Lazarus 2 Comments

Story Maps are one of the greatest resources on ScreenplayHowTo. They provide a great way for a novice writer to get a handle on the many moving parts and information that’s included with a screenplay. Story Maps are wonderful tools. I strongly encourage people to spend as much time as possible making their own.

Once you get a good grasp on how Story Maps work, you’re going to want to push them beyond that, so you can better identify the part that helps you write the second act.

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How To Write a Logline

May 4, 2014 By Christine Conradt Leave a Comment

Being a screenwriter isn’t just about writing a screenplay. You also need to know how to write other important stuff like treatments, synopses, one-pagers, and loglines.
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Adding Camera Direction to Your Screenplay — Yes or No?

April 21, 2014 By Christine Conradt Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever read a book on screenwriting, you’ve probably heard that adding camera movements to your script is a no-no. The reason for this is simple: novice writers overuse camera movements to the point that they distract the reader and actually impede the reader’s ability to visualize a scene. Instead of teaching writers how to use camera movements effectively in their scripts, it’s easier to just to tell them not to use them at all. But I disagree. If you want to know how to include camera shots and angles the right way, read on. [Read more…]

When to Use CUT TO: (and When Not To)

April 14, 2014 By Christine Conradt 12 Comments

The majority of screenwriting books tell you that you should avoid using CUT TO: between scenes because it reeks of amateurish writing and quite frankly, it’s obvious that to go from one scene in a movie to the next, there will be a cut. New writers read that and typically remove every instance of CUT TO: from their scripts which can be just as bad as using it too much.

The trick is to know when to use it and when not to… [Read more…]

Every Screenwriter’s Toolbox

March 31, 2014 By Christine Conradt 2 Comments

For every successful screenwriter, there’s a unique story of how he or she made it over the wall. Each one is different, and no one’s journey can be duplicated by anyone else. Some had parents in the industry, some got big breaks, and some went to film school, while others didn’t get any of those advantages. It’s not important. What IS important is that you, as a hopeful screenwriter, build a toolbox of essentials that will allow you to seize any and every opportunity that comes your way. [Read more…]