What are /r/Screenwriting's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

The Blade Runner 2049 script really captures the feel of the cinematography to me -- or inspired it. Either way.

BR2049 SCRIPT

Very cool! You can actually buy a version of it https://www.amazon.com/Godfather-Notebook-Francis-Ford-Coppola/dp/1682450740/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=.

Mythic Structure:

• Hero With A Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell
• The Writer's Journey - Christopher Vogler

Contemporary Structure:

• Story - Robert McKee
• Screenplay - The Foundations of Screenwriting - Syd Field
• Making A Good Script Great - Linda Seger

Screenwriting Techniques:

• Save the Cat - Blake Snyder
• 21st Century Screenplay - Linda Aronson
• Writing Screenplays That Sell - Micheal Hauge
• www.tvtropes.org

Hope this helps!

On Writing is still the best book i've ever read on writing, even if he's not specifically talking about screenwriting. It's like 90% personal stories that are flawlessly written, and then 10% of incredible advice on your craft.

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary

^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

I'm in the same boat. I've found countless books on feature structure/writing, but hardly anything about how to write/plan a damn tv show lol So far, I really like Crafty TV Writing, it gives you a general run-down about what makes a good tv series, coming up with episode ideas, different approaches to the pilot, and a bunch of other cool stuff. It seems more geared towards sitcoms than dramatic TV, but I still think it's worth checking out.

It was an off-hand comment in another thread, but this thread seems to be a bit more dedicated to it

It's by no means my favorite or most helpful book, but having someone tell me to write a specific page count helped me get it out in 7 days. I'd just stay after work and not leave until I hit the page count. So in that sense, it made the difference between having nothing and something. I'd rather have a ROUGH draft than an idea teasing me for another 10+ years.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon

I'm floored that you wrote this at 14. Bravo OP, it's pretty funny stuff. My only critique/advice would be regarding formatting (how to label characters speaking with subtitles/voice over etc...)

That's the stuff that can be really small or seem unimportant at first, but it pays off to learn now rather than when you get a chance to pitch your work and a producer kicks you to the curb simply because you didn't label something correctly.

My girlfriend bought me this guidebook a few years ago when I started learning how to do this, maybe you'll find it useful too: Hollywood Standard

Final note, it's VERY impressive you came up with something like this at your age. Do not stop, it's making me both incredibly jealous and driven to continue my work. Best of luck brotha!

I don't get why people dismiss this book. It provides a basic framework for script structure, and in my opinion is great for beginning screenwriters, alongside other texts such as The Writer's Journey by Vogler and Inside Story by Marks.

My advice: read it and use what you want from it. People bag on it because they view it as too prescriptive, but it's entirely up to you how much of it you apply in your own writing.

Every day write ten "what if's". Do not give a lot of thought to them, just write them off the top of your head.

• What if a maniac became the president?
• What if a duck billed platypus was the answer to all of our problems?
• What if a man and woman swapped bodies, except for the penis and vagina?
• What if the music literally stopped?
• What if the rain started to produce music as it fell?
• etc.

Keep all these "what-if's" in a file. I use org-mode so I can move my ideas up and down easily. Every day I review the first ten ideas and move the ideas I really like up, and then ideas that don't stick get sent to the bottom of the file. I add notes to any idea that I really like.

Your next script may not have anything to do with these ideas, but it really helps to get the creative juices flowing so you look for good stories.

Example of org-mode for outlines. Workflowy is another good tool for outlines.

Writing Movies for Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can, Too!

Thanks for sharing!

Here's a link to the one I created, mostly based off of How To Write A Screenplay in 21 Days

Feel free to make a copy and use as you wish.

Movies don't inspire me to write. The good ones intimidate me and the bad ones make me wonder wtf the point is. What inspires me is reading about process from screenwriters. The wordplayer.com columns inspire me. Stephen King's On Writing sets me on fire.

Freewriting!

For me, I think of freewriting in terms of improvisation. Start with a simple idea and see where you can take it. There are some great resources and info about long form improvising and improv theater. A lot of times, improv-ers will start with a word, location, phrase, whatever, and they build a scene around it. Sometimes they take that word and it inspires them to recall a personal true story of their own and then, afterwards they build a scene around that. Impov's normally geared towards comedy, but it doesn't mean you have to write comedy, there's no wrong answers in freewriting.

But if you want to just get in the habit of writing a quick couple pages every morning, just think of them as scenarios. Maybe they go somewhere, or maybe they don't. The important thing is you wrote!

http://www.can-i-get-a.com/ I use this website for suggestions on a scene to write

http://www.themostdangerouswritingapp.com/ And I use this website to force it out of me. It's a lot of fun. (It's just a blank writing canvas but I tend not to care about formatting in freewriting, because you can always re-write later.)

The fun part, is I copy and paste all the most dangerous writing app stuff into a giant google doc, and after a while, all these 2-3 page scenes add up and it's kinda fun to go through and read, and get ideas from them.

Again, there's no wrong answers in freewriting! I think what you may be concerned about is having to put up with bad scenes. But that's just something you just have to live with. They ain't all gonna be winners, but hopefully there is a diamond in the rough.

Good luck!

No. http://www.writerduet.com/ <---- Free When someone needs you to write in Final Draft, they'll let you know, you'll buy it, and you'll be being paid enough that it doesn't bother you to buy it.

I think you're wrong about that. I'm sure there are more than two Europeans on this sub and we all know who Bergman is.

Plus, on a general note, you shouldn't assume the worst in people. They are often more educated than you'd think.

As for the scripts, I don't own any, but you can buy a collection of four on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Screenplays-Ingmar-Bergman-English-Swedish/dp/0671678337

There is value in just checking again why you are convinced you must write. I'm not going to unpack this now assuming you can do that yourself and have done so. Just worth mentioning it again. Maybe you like the idea of it? If so i trust there are many here that can prove why it certainly isn't romantic. Maybe you would like to be in movie business? There are other paths. So just think about it again. Movies are entertainment and not media. Maybe feel free to unpack here.

For me, I've tried to stop writing more than once and failed, so i'm not sure where your struggle is. Writing is hard. Writing well is close to impossible. Once you truly realise this you start to approach it like work which requires development, studying, effort, sacrifice etc.

Here's a little statement from Stephen King in On Writing that opened it up for me: you must not come lightly to the blank page.

Such a simple statement. So i suggest you don't sit down to write until you have something to write. That should scare you. At least have a great unique idea that has to be told.

I'm not someone who likes to write about my life, if that was a requirement to be a writer i missed it a long time ago.

Also, what works for me is not to tell anyone about what i'm writing. Bottling it up helps me to keep focus and excited to eventually unleash the written beast.

Three Uses of the Knife by David Mamet - Treatise on the purpose of drama in human culture and life

Conquest of the Useless by Werner Herzog - Look inside the mind of a brilliant, mad creator at his peak

On Writing by Steven King - Everyone will say this one

Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman - Probably this one too

Entourage (The TV show) - Because we all need a little of the fantasy every once in a while

A few additional links, if you want to read further on implicit bias:

This article in the NYT from a pair of IB researchers: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/opinion/sunday/the-roots-of-implicit-bias.html

This online assessment lets you test your own capacity for IB across several different categories: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

"Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman discusses at length the energy conservation of the brain, and the evolutionary advantages of the "familiar = good / unfamiliar = bad" shortcut. Happily, we no longer have to fear death-by-lion, so it's probably time to work on counteracting these hardwired impulses.

I'll say it again: Implicit bias is a universal human attribute, and it doesn't make you a bad person. But if you're interested in living in a world where everyone actually gets equal access to opportunity, educating yourself about this is a good start.

Focus your idea into a logline, then post it in the weekly Logline Monday threads for feedback.

I swear, I had to send it to like 70 people by email. I've gotten tired of the PMs so here:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/260665459/Steve-Jobs-Aaron-Sorkin

Edit: NBC got the script removed from Scribd so it seems like they don't want it to be shared. I was under the impression it was actually released to the public online. Anyways, I won't be sharing it anymore. Sorry.

See EL MARIACHI made for 7000 and read the book https://www.amazon.com/Rebel-without-Crew-23-Year-Old-Filmmaker/dp/0452271878 Robert Rodriguez continues to make movies his way.

Read it when it came out. Literally right when it came out. I couldn't quote anything from it but I do remember my opinion on it. If you like it good for you. I didn't like it. I found Stephen King's On Writing book to be much more insightful. I'm not sure I can rap my head around how studying philosophy makes your opinion more valid. I've sold scripts, books and comic books. It doesn't make my opinion about this book any more valid than anyone else. I'm glad you think it's genius. I think it's dog food.

> Michael Kolodny

This guy, I would assume. And I agree with you. This old racket of paying to get read and connecting it with donations for some charitable foundation gives me some pretty cynical vibes. Plus, why the hell would I want my script read by some guy that mostly appears to have worked for various sports television venues? What kind of practical insight does he have into writing screenplays?

I’d have to go with the screenwriters bible. But perhaps more than that, get a copy of The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It’ll get you motivated.

But perhaps the real answer to your question is, the only real way to learn about the craft is to just do it. Try writing. Sit your ass in the chair and look at that blinking cursor. Sure, a text on theory may help you start, but in the end, you’re going to be the one putting in the work.

Sit down with the intention to write and you’ll be surprised how your mind reacts.

First Time Director by Gil Bettman. It covers every single aspect of filmmaking, from writing to acting to shooting. This book is packed full of amazing information.

If it was one book about writing... That's harder. Probably On Writing by Stephen King. Very inspiring book, though admittedly, it's not a technical how-to manual.

Here's McQuarrie's draft, Yeah I haven't been able to find Benioff's draft of origins but would love to read it. It's would be interesting to compare to Skip Wood's draft.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3ExjOZaRCaIaUxrdS1zY2hheWc/edit?usp=sharing

How to extract pages from a PDF file:

Download PDF-XChange Editor for free or get a similar free PDF editor. There are a lot of them.

Go to the "Document" menu. Click "Extract pages" and write for example 37-39 and click save. Now you have a PDF file with 3 pages from the script.

Eric Heisserer's 150 Screenwriting Challenges (Amazon)

I'm an advocate of daily creative writing exercises to build and maintain excellent craft. If you don't have a your own list of exercises, why not borrow from an Oscar-nominated screenwriter?

(edit: grammar)

I think the most important thing is to read a bunch of screenwriting books. That encourages you to look at them all critically, rather than falling in the thrall of any one. Read and discard - not obsess.

"The Tools of Screenwriting" by Howard and Mabley is very useful.

I thought "On Film-making" by MacKendrick is also good, although not that much of it is about writing.

The greatest skepticism should be applied to books that purport to offer a template - these can cause the most problems. "Save the Cat," "The Writer's Journey," and so on.

It is vitally important to take a liberal-arts approach to these books: test them. Compare them to movies that you love - notice how they fit, and how they don't fit.

Incidentally, this story is an example of what Stephen King talks about in On Writing - a story generally comes from two ideas brought together. It's based on something my wife does to me all the time, and also on a time when I tried to get something out of our bedroom without waking her up.

To paraphrase Stephen King: 'An idea is just an idea. You put two ideas together - baby, you got a stew going!'

You're not alone. Two recommendations from my own experience:

1. Truby's Anatomy of Story helped me see the necessity/benefit of doing all of my preliminary work before ever thinking of writing a scene. Answering these questions up front has been key to knowing what my story is and where it's going before writing my pages.

2. Steven Pressfield's The War of Art helped me see the necessity/benefit of getting my ass in the seat on a regular basis. He has a lot of tough love, no bullshit advice for writers and creatives that just works in my opinion. He said just what I needed to hear. I haven't slowed down since.

Hope it helps. Keep writing!

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.” --Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird—less instructional than inspiration and a smartly written reminder that Shitty First Drafts are a thing even the most successful authors deal with (among other things).

Anatomy of Story by John Truby. Probably a writer's bible, useful across the board.

This isn't my dropbox so it could disappear at any time, but there's a whole heap of stuff in here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tvpa1kipnnhaye3/euPxVapYw9/Movie%20Scripts

And Blacklist scripts 2008-2015, although apparently lots are missing:

http://www.filedropper.com/blacklistscriptszip

It follows an illusive, fearless, expert who does freelance work of all kinds...for Death.

Soooo... there is no expert at all? Seriously?

http://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/elusive-illusive/ .... "An elusive fairy is one you can't catch, but an illusive one was never really there at all. It was just an illusion!"

Source Code.

Keep hearing that it's a great script and Scriptshadow gave it a genius rating so it must be worth a read. Decent turnout last month, let's keep it rolling.

Here's 7: http://www.zen134237.zen.co.uk/Parks_and_Recreation/

From this site, which is a great resource for scripts, US and UK, comedy and drama: https://sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/us-comedy/show-collections

As a gamedev, I can gaurantee you that Twine is probably what you're looking for.

If you're using Unity (or a custom C# engine), you can also use Yarn Spinner which is essentially Twine but built for that kind of thing.

save the cat writes for tv is a great resource for not only writing a pilot but also mapping out the first season

save the cat writes for television

A couple of Hallmark Channel movie writers published a guide book recently: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Hallmark! Writing a Made-for-TV Christmas Movie: The Unofficial Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KMFPN71/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_kUndGb5KE9DJF

I think I've had the same problem as well. I come up with a cool idea. I write it. Or some of it. And then I look at it and it's maybe not as cool as I thought.

But more likely, I'm not good enough to write a cool idea and make it as cool as it is in my head. You're in good company though. I suspect that this happens to every single writer. I'll bet that Martin's next book GoT book is late because he can't make it as cool in his head yet as he wants to.

The idea in your head that you think of and the idea you can write are often very different. But no one is going to pay you to make the idea in your head a movie. They will pay you if you can get it on a page and have people respond to it.

The book 'The War of Art' by Steven Pressfield equates what you're feeling to basically procrastination or resistance. You're defeating yourself. The only way to evaluate something is to finish writing it. And then rewrite it.

Newer writers often haven't learned that the real writing is not writing -- it's rewriting and editing and abandoning one idea that seemed awesome in favor of one that works even better.

Cool ideas that can't be executed are worth exactly zero.

You have to get comfortable with the idea that you're going to write a lot of garbage to get to stuff that's good.

Yes. Read over a hundred scripts, produced classics sure but, especially spec scripts both produced and unproduced & especially in genres you want to write in.

Also check out:

• How to Write Movies for ~~Fun and~~ Profit, Garant & Lennon
• On Writing, Stephen King
• Bird by Bird, Anne Lamont
• Poetics, Aristotle
• War of Art, Pressfield

>if you are over age 40, your chances of selling a script, no matter how great it is, is virtually zero.

Unmitigated horseshit.

The chances of selling a script at ANY age is virtually zero.

You write scripts to show that you're a great writer, so they will hire you to write other projects. Selling one is like winning the lottery, until you're on the A-list. Then you have proven you can write things that folks will pay to see, and selling a script gets easier.

Don't let your age stop you. If you can't get arrested in Hollywood, write a novel and sell it on Kindle, like THE MARTIAN. Good writing gets noticed. Be So Good They Can't Ignore You, and just keep putting out finished product.

If you keep putting out scripts/novels and nobody responds, it means you have to improve your writing. You can do that, if you put your mind to it.

Stephen J. Cannell started writing novels after he sold his TV studio, and become a best selling author. Then they hired him in his 60s to write an adaptation to film.

They hired Alvin Sargent to write the Spiderman movies in his 80s and he made big hits out of them.

The time you spent wondering and conversing about this limiting idea is time you could have spent on your next draft.

Get writing.

Would you hire an architect that didn't understand the symbolism or drafting tools used to draw plans? Or a contractor that can't read them?

If you wanted a million dollars for a script, would you be willing to do a million dollars worth of work to get it?

Get an older edition of The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White, whether or not you are capable of writing a compelling story. It's 60 pages, entertaining, contains everything you need to know about the basics of English Grammar and tantamount to getting dressed for work.

In case anyone missed this, he referred to this as his diaosi ticket buying theory. diaosi according to Google translate, means "cock wire," and is described in the WSJ as an off-color term for "loser."

So this suit at AliBaba is saying the audience in China is just a bunch of jerk-offs. Who cares about the story, give them some faces to look at, some wuxia and we're good. Instant money.

If that were the case, then Avatar would gross no more money in China than Craptastic Four. So he's wrong.

Whenever some suit says they've got a foolproof way to replace the writer, it's never worked.

Don't get distracted by this for too long. Write more, get better, and become So Good They Can't Ignore You.

Chris Vogler - The Writer's Journey and Memo from the Story Dept.

The Poetics by Aristotle

My tool kit on www.hartchart.com

Michael Huage and Ellen Sanders - their books are instructive and practical

read the classics

And the Eneagram - google is. best character decoding ever

to be continued

Join local screenwriting and filmmaking groups, or start one via Meetup.com.

Offer to crew for film students at your local university.

Find out where the nearest film festival is and volunteer for that.

Join online screenwriting communities and participate in them. You're already doing that. :)

jaytrain12 is right.

The Main Character's name doesn't matter --> in your logline: because nobody "knows" who "Thomas Sunday" is (yet).

Better to replace the name with 2-3 words that help the reader be able to visualize who the character "is" (i.e. - type of person they are.)

This is from a good article on Loglines:

Identify the protagonist.

List out all of your main character’s biographical and physical information, then select the strongest adjective and proper noun combination that represents who they are.

Some examples of strong combinations for your protagonist description include “cheerful school teacher,” “elitist funeral director,” or “depressed cop.”

Here's the link to the full article: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/screenwriting-tips-how-to-write-a-logline#3-tips-for-writing-the-perfect-logline

Casablanca.

Also, read the pilot script for LOST, mostly because of the style it's written in.

You can read the pilot for LOST, as well as a whole bunch of other TV scripts and several bibles here.

LOST is in the US Drama pilot scripts 04-05 Season section.

Also, clicking on that link will take you to our landing page where you can fill out a survey with your thoughts on the show but you can also navigate to the pages for the 4 other shows too.

If you bought Final Draft, get your customer number and contact support via chat for free here..

Generally, if you keep your OS current and Final Draft current, you'll have very few problems.

He could be talking about a tablet first of all.

And second, if, say an idea strikes you when you're not around a computer, having an app on your phone that could be used to edit and publish scripts would be extremely useful.

It looks like Celtx has one.

I'm giddy with excitement!

I'll see what I have a post here if I'm not too busy today. Also posted a few from The Hit List on Send Space here.

Companies like A24 and Neon only buy scripts from agents and managers they know and trust. They ask (aka "solicit") these reps to bring good scripts to them. Any script that comes to them without their invitation is called an "unsolicited submission" and will be immediately rejected without being read. Reading an unsolicited submission opens them to potential litigation, so most companies are very firm in enforcing this rule.

Your best bet is to practice writing scripts until you are very good at it, then try to get an agent or manager to represent you. Even then, only a small percentage of all spec scripts ever get sold or optioned. It's more likely that your script will get you a chance to rewrite an existing project, known as an "assignment."

I recommend you read this book to learn how the business and the job of being a screenwriter works.

Good luck.

You absolutely must read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. I went through the same type of self-sabotage thinking and this book really helped me to take that negative voice and use it to my advantage.

Here are just two quotes from the book: > If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

> Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

Keep at it!

I read a lot of them - and I would say they were mostly helpful, but I only treat one of them like it's The Bible:

Elements of Style for Screenwriting is The Bible. All about formatting and purpose. No rules here, this is just a "this is how you format" guidebook. I also learned a ton of the nomenclature from this.

Other's I've Found Helpful:

Syd Feld's Screenplay

Linda Seger's Advanced Screenwriting

Save The Cat

Read these, to get the basics, and then toss them aside - figure out your own thing from there.

Non-Screenwriting Must-Reads:

Stephen King's On Writing

David Mamet's Three Uses of the Knife

Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces

The Complete World of Greek Mythology

In "On Writing", Stephen King mentions that when you write, you have to be ready to have nightmares and weird dreams, because you're basically letting your subconscious on the loose. I have noticed this happening to me, especially if I hadn't been writing regularly before.

A couple of years ago, I had a dream that I called Disney in my sleep. In the dream the next morning, I realized what I had done. Then I got a call from a woman at Disney telling me that they would like to meet with me so I could write something for the Star Wars saga. I apologized to them for calling them in my sleep, and the woman just laughed and said "It's more common than you'd think."

For so many years, I was that guy. I would talk and talk and talk about my newest big idea. There was something so comforting about keeping my big ideas as just pure potential. Like no matter what was happening in my life I could fantasize about my someday, when I would finally do something with one of them and make it big.

Eventually, I realized that I was completely full of shit.

That keeping my ideas as unrealized potential was just a security blanket. What the fuck was I so scared of?

I was scared that my big ideas might not really be worthy. And because I had built my identity around being the smart guy with great ideas, I might not be worthy.

Then, I had a couple of events in my life slap me in the face and make me realize that I was wasting the gifts I had been given.

So I started acting on my ideas. Some of them have sucked in practice. But others have changed my life and the lives of others. I started Forging Leaders based on the biggest of idea of all. That I wanted to live a life that wasn't ruled by fear, and I wanted to help others do the same thing.

If you have a screenplay that resonates with you. Fucking write it! It doesn't matter if anyone else likes it, or even reads it. That first screenplay may be an epic fail, but it could start you down the path that leads to an amazing life.

Don't let your fear of failing prevent you from taking the first step on the path of your own hero's journey.

Here's another article I wrote about that... http://forgingleaders.com/the-journey-makes-the-hero/

p.s. There is one book every writer(actually every human) should read. The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. Best book I've ever read on how to overcome the Resistance that keeps us from acting on the things which are most important to us. Phenomenal resource for writers.

Do Shit That Scares You,

Jeremiah

I feel in most cases, some of us are cursed to be writers. Pursuing this life, working shitty day/night jobs, writing at every possible sober/waking moment, and having a life partner always seems to bring up the question to my own sanity. Even my partner can see when I would rather be writing than be at certain social functions.

Yes, it is lonely, especially for writers. We are cursed to always see a story, metaphor, subtext in even the smallest of circumstance. We also find ourselves always finding the clues to our own character within the world around us. We hope that, maybe one day, we can have the same hero's journey as our hero/heroine. I have been writing for nearly eight years, providing coverage for other hopefuls, in hopes of one day making this world my career. And the only solace that keeps me going is recalling Stephen King's words from "On Writing": "Just Keep Writing."

So keep writing my friends. Someday our madness will become our livelihood.

Read everything. Take what works for you and toss the rest.

Personally, I started with Syd Field. But that was 20 years ago. Now it seems like there are dozens of books available on screenwriting and storytelling. I like Richard but I feel like his writing can be a little dry at times. I'd start with Snyder, then read Walter for more info.

If you want book suggestions, I also go back to Aristotle's Poetics, Vogler, Bird By Bird, On Writing, and Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down The Bones. If you want to be a storyteller, don't just focus on books about screenwriting. You should also understand the basics of storytelling.

I take my advice on rewriting from Stephen King's book On Writing (excellent read, if you haven't already).

Print it out, bind it, and put it away in a drawer. Don't look at it for about two weeks and clear your head of all the post-completion writer's euphoria. At the end of the 14th day, pick up your story and a red pen.

Printing makes a world of difference for me. It's easier to read while I'm commuting, walking around, or waiting for something. And for some reason, I find it easier to spot mechanical errors when I'm holding it in my hand. So try it out first. If it works for you, you should think about investing in a printer.

Hope that helped!

Congratulations on embarking on this difficult journey. I am also starting out. A little Googling will tell you this subject has been beaten to death but I'll help you out with what I think is an essential reading list.

• Save the Cat
• Story by Robert McKee
• The Writer's Journey by Christian Vogler
• 22 Steps by John Truby

You should have a basic grasp of STRUCTURE before anything, then once you understand why it is that story's have a generic structure, you can begin to break the rules. But structure is your first basic starting point. As McKee states "creativity without craft is like fuel without an engine: it burns wildly" so learn the backbone with which to drive your creativity.

Start here and branch out from this:

http://www.gointothestory.com/

Best of luck

EDIT: I'd also like to add that because there are so many screenwriting guru's out there, there are also so many opinions about them. Don't take these opinions too seriously! I've noticed people get very passionate about hating on specific people and wasting time discussing why they're wrong. Let it be and take what you want from each of them; there's no one answer and no one correct method of writing or understanding screenplays, character or story structure.

I also work 50-60 hrs/week at two jobs, go to the gym 4 days, plus meal prep and other chores. So I definitely relate and I have very little time to myself, but I make it a point to create daily and that's really all it takes to get started. The discipline falls into place once you repeat it enough.

My personal goal is to get at least a few words on a page every day. Could be a single line of dialog, a story idea, or end up being pages of actual script. I carry a pen everywhere, jot things on a napkin or scratch paper if I have a spare second. I also keep a slush doc on my phone and maybe I add things to it while in a Lyft or something. I find pockets of time, and keep myself accountable with The Seinfeld Method.

There are always a million reasons NOT to write, you just have to come up with a single reason TO write and you'll be fine. Best of luck!

"The Castle"

It's a classic, one of the highest regarded Australian comedies ever. Let me know what you think of it if you watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpqT_l7QcBM

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-castle/

Check out A Soft Murmur, it is an ambient noise generator that lets you customize the levels of various things, like white noise, coffee shop conversation, fire crackling, crickets, storms, and rain.

There is another similar site called Noisli, the same thing but with more options. There are probably many similar sites.

It might have the opposite effect at first, because you have to set the levels. If you try A Soft Murmur, I'll recommend just a tiny amount of coffee shop, fire and singing bowls. And just a bit more waves and thunder than the first three.

So the Sony Emails that were hacked are now on wikileaks with a searchable database... I've been enjoying my reads the last 24 hours but I did a search on blacklist and none of the sony execs subscribed to the blacklists email. The did subscribe to variety, hollywood reporter, etc... but no blcklist...

here's the link for anyone interested... the documents section has a lot of unreleased screenplays.. https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/

Immediately, I think you should consider two things: Nightmare on Elm Street, and the trope of the impaired female.

Even the great Wes Craven, in early drafts, fell prey to this bias of the (typically male) writer. His female victim was perceived by his daughter as poorly written. Therefore, Craven decided to break the trope and made his female characters more competent.

In the end, Elm Street has proven to be a classic film, rich with meaning. It's more than just "oh, scary guy killing people." It's about realizing that groups of people can agree to do terrible things, like gathering together to burn Freddie. It's a complicated revenge fantasy told from the victims' perspective.

So... that's where I'll start. Why does Maggie need to be "battling depression" in your logline? What if she's not impaired and actually up against a terrifying threat?

That said, a flawed character is viable. And yes, we all face depression. But if your story stands the test of time, it would benefit from wrestling with the real source of our societal depression. Here's a link to a book from 2016. It openly points to the source: a real lack of community.

https://www.amazon.com/Tribe-Homecoming-Belonging-Sebastian-Junger/dp/1455566381/ref=asc_df_1455566381/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=312021455910&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=14176023820330271106&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9060325&amp;hvtargid=pla-412075287585&amp;psc=1

Good luck with writing. Thanks for trusting us to reflect on your work.

- Daniel

> So my question is, is it about time to put in some hard work? Is it even possible to write a great script so quickly without even planning a thing? Does anyone else work like this?

Back in my first year of writing, the first script I wrote made the Black List Friday emails and the second the Amazon Studios Notable Projects slate. It all seemed kinda easy but also frustrating. I was getting some pats on the back but little actual traction.

Basically, you can pick up a lot of good screenwriting traits over your lifetime by watching movies and tv. I got into writing late at aged 32 and had clearly developed an ability to write scenes (mainly action scenes) pretty well.

But I didn't know what I was doing and that's a concern. That shows an ability with no real depth of understanding.

I was very reluctant to look at the academic side and thought all the work was a bit silly. However, after reading a few books, I did learn a lot about how and why I was doing the things I did. I also ended up facing the areas I knew I struggled with and avoided.

I'll say this though. It took my years to get back into that positive and brave place I was when I first started.

This is my recommended reading list;

Screenwriting;

• Writing For Emotional Impact, by Karl Iglesias
• Writing screenplays that sell, by Michael Hauge
• Screenplay the foundations of screenwriting, by Syd Field
• Your screenplay sucks, by William M. Akers
• Story, by Robert McKee
• Screenwriting 101, by Film Crit Hulk!

Art and writing;

• Art & Fear, by David Bayles & Ted Orland
• Steal Like An Artist, by Austin Kleon
• On Writing, by Stephen King
• Creativity, Inc., by Ed Catmull

Industry;

• Quentin Tarantino: shooting from the hip, by Wensley Clarkson
• Rebels on the backlot, by Sharon Waxman

I also detail my own process here.

In no way do I want to understate the importance of reading scripts, but when do you write?

Will you, at some point, shift from indulging in something you like as a reward for reading to a reward for writing?

As an olympic level procrastinator myself, I struggled with something similar. I've been playing piano for 25 years. I love it and am able to play challenging repertoire that's really fun. A few years ago, I'd play piano to "warm my brain up" before writing. Or I'd play piano to "let ideas gel" after outlining. Or I'd play piano after reading a script to "get out from in front of the screen" before I started writing.

And I was getting really good... at piano. I realized that while I wasn't "wasting time" (reddit, clash royale, etc.), I wasn't writing either. My procrastination had outsmarted me by having me do things that benefitted me, that didn't feel like time wasters. But I still wasn't writing. It had moved beyond simple procrastination to Resistance with a capital R. If you're unfamiliar with the term, please please please read Steven Pressfield's magnificent book The War of Art. It's less than $10 on amazon. It's short, some chapters are only a paragraph or two. It's more of a daily devotional than a novel.

Sooo... not to say that this is what you're doing. I don't know your life. And in no way do I intend to wag my finger at you or anything like that. Just some of the language you used in your post sounded familiar and I'll pretty much look for excuses to plug a book that kind of changed my life.

Read all the professional scripts you can get your hands on!

***Good websites for this are:

-Drew's Script-o-Rama (script-o-rama.com/snazzy/table.html)

-Simply Scripts

-The Daily Script

Read books about screenwriting and writing in general (I don't particularly love Save the Cat, but that's one that almost everyone recommends... Take that with a grain of salt and maybe check it out to form your own opinion!)

***Book recommendations:

-The Elements of Style

-The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters

-Novelist's Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes (though specifically for novels, still very, very helpful)

-The Tools of Screenwriting: A Writer's Guide to the Craft and Elements of a Screenplay

-On Writing by Stephen King (not really a lesson in writing, but more so what goes on in a writer's head, and just a very interesting read)

Those are just a few! There are thousands more out there.

Keep watching movies and analyze the shit out of them. In a good movie, nothing is a coincidence or an accident. Why did the character say this instead of that? They keep mentioning the number 11, what's the significance of it? Why is this set in New York during the 1950's? What's the meaning of the title? Etc. It's tedious, but helpful.

Most importantly, just start writing and enjoy the shit out of yourself. Don't get discouraged. First drafts are never good. Please, please, please, please, please do not hesitate to message me if you have any questions. I'd even be happy to read some of your stuff. I'm no expert, but I love what I do.

Good luck!

So, here's the thing:

The muse is too damn busy to show up when you're dicking around. She's not going to land on your shoulder while you're playing Overwatch, or whisper sweet nothings in your ear while you're clicking around Facebook or reddit.

If you want her affections, you have to earn them. And you earn them by putting in the work.

Make time. I recommend doing it in the morning, before you go to work, but everybody works differently. Sit down and do nothing but try to come up with ideas for an hour a day.

And if you can't do that, then recognize that you're making a choice about what's important to you, which is fine. But if you're making the choice, every day, that this isn't important to you, then understand what results you're going to get.

"The War of Art," is a book some people find helpful. "The Artists Way," is another. But at the end of the day, you're either choosing to make the time to do the work, or you're not.

The thing about being lazy is that you can beat yourself up about it, or you can just stop being lazy. Beating yourself up over not doing enough work is nothing but another way of procrastinating.

> My stuff is good but I can never complete it.

So sack up and fucking finish something, man. Cut the woe-is-me shit.

Have you read "The War of Art," by Steven Pressfield? Might help.

Also, don't get discouraged by some of the numbers being thrown around in this thread. You don't get bonus points for writing six mediocre scripts - quality matters a lot more than quantity, and beginners shouldn't be holding themselves to a professional's pace.

I don't think there is a list of screenplays everyone should read.

The notion that there's some canonical list suggests that the act of learning screenwriting is about hitting a bunch of checkboxes, that there's some clear or straightforward path.

It's better than saying "Everybody needs to read 'The Writer's Journey'" ... but not by much.

People should read a bunch of scripts, in a variety of genres, to movies they have and haven't seen.

This is a serious suggestion: read the fiction. Horror fiction and horror movies are, at this point, almost completely dissimilar. The fiction is better.

Cemetery Dance, the world's greatest source of short stories in the genre, is selling individual issues on amazon as e-books for $2.99 a piece. Pick up a few.

A few suggestions for actual novels/books: The Traveling Vampire Show, by Richard Laymon. Toplin, by Michael McDowell. The Wasp Factory, by Iain Banks. Deathbird Stories, by Harlan Ellison. And for books on the craft: Writers Workshop of Horror, edited by Michael Knost. And On Writing Horror, edited by Mort Castle.

I have read, and personally recommend all of the above books. I'm not recommending books about writing horror screenplays, because 99 times out of 100, the horror screenplay is dogshit. And you can do better.

DINNER

When Eve Jones befriends three cultural icons held captive underneath her new home, she must use all her cunning to help them escape.

I actually thought Mashable did a fantastic job of breaking down everything that happened in the Jobs drama without villainizing any individual party.

Basically, I feel no regret reading this breakdown of all the events. It's fascinating.

How Sony Lost Jobs: The Inside Story from the Leaked Emails http://mashable.com/2014/12/11/steve-jobs-sony-email-hack/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link

Just got this off a website:

Astronauts go by UTC (Universal coordinated time) which is the same as Greenwich time. Also of note, is that during missions from the first second of liftoff a timer starts which keeps track of the MET (mission elapsed time)... this turns into minutes, hours then days. However the UTC is the actual "time" astronauts live by in space. Check out this awesome online clock showing times around the world... including UTC (universal coordinated time): http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

So maybe you can put a time on the slug line to indicate Morning or Evening?

http://download.cnet.com/Celtx/3000-13631_4-10850080.html you can still download v 2.9.7. The issue is, though, Celtx uses/used an internet connection for typesetting the PDF export so I have no idea if that feature still works.

Otherwise you may want to look into Fade In Pro, it's one of the shining stars of screenplay software at the moment and supports many import formats like Celtx.

Unimportant. Finish it first.

Your brain actually releases chemicals that make you feel like you've achieved a goal when you haven't. That's why people feel alright cheating on their diets. That's why people don't actually study. And that's why writers don't Finish their First Draft.

Write it ALL out before you rewrite it. You will eventually have to rewrite major portions of it even when you are done. Studios buy at least one re-write when your script is sold automatically, and hopefully your agent will argue for more. They will ask you to change stuff, even the perfect parts, JUST to see if that makes any part of it a better script. Then they will go back to the previous version (or best case, a minor thing does turn out better and they want ANOTHER rewrite back towards the original while keeping the improved bits.)

But the more you focus on the first couple of pages, the less and less likely you will ever get to that end goal. Or you get there, and you refuse to touch a word of your baby, and they hire a new writer who doesn't share your vision.

Don't let your brain trick you into imagining what you can buy with your magical big check until you just turned it into the bank.

To answer the question specifically, this seems to be the career you want to follow. But he got it through SHEER SHEER luck. Plus it wasn't considered a commercial success and he was out of work for a while AFTER it, so studios are less likely to entertain the option again. ANd he did it super super cheaply.

It depends on what sort of community you want.

Since you're kind of writing a fanfiction-esque thing, you could post on fanfiction.net. You'll get some readers I bet. I haven't been active there for many years, so I don't know what kind of feedback it provides now.

If you want a serious website with people seeking to become more than just hobby writers, I frequent Scribophile. The scriptwriting community on it is still very new, but the prose community is very good, and the website has been around for over four years now (I think.)

You have to read/critique to earn points that'll allow you to post a chunk of your own work, but it's free! Plus, if you hang around in the forums and make some relationships with people, you might just get a friend you could exchange entire stories with.

The feedback is very good. Very detailed. They have a fanfiction subcategory that you could use. Try it out, thank me later (or not at all, if you hate it.)

Also: just google online writer's groups and see what pops up. There are others out there I haven't tried.

lot of people use https://www.scribd.com/ or dropbox

Also check out some screenwriting software. That'll help with the formatting.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/2p8o57/what_screenwriting_software_should_i_use_faq/

Try using a thesaurus.

Think about the major themes, characters, environments, set-pieces, etc. in your script and then just start looking up synonyms and see what comes up.

For example, just based on your working title, I put in "misfit" and "alien," and a synonym for misfit is "different breed." So, A Different Breed already seems like a promising title that speaks to both being a misfit and an alien and, what I'm assuming is a theme in your script, of not fitting in.

Or you may have to dig a little deeper than that, so, for another example, I see "dropout" is another synonym of "misfit" which makes me think of "burnout." *Burnouts" is evocative of both a group of outsiders and a crash landing spacecraft (I don't know your story, obviously, so that may not be applicable).

Anyway, point is, just challenging your brain to a little game of word association can often help a lot.

re: logline (note: I didn't read the script)

What's their main obstacle? What/Who is in their way/trying to stop them?

What's their goal? Who are they escorting (main character?) and why do they need protection?

This might help: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/screenwriting-tips-how-to-write-a-logline#how-to-write-a-great-logline-in-4-steps

I'm sure the act of transcribing your favorite TV episodes will be a useful exercise but there is a great deal to be learned from actually reading the professional's actual words. I was wondering if you ever came across this site: https://sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/home It's a great source for pdf tv scripts.

In my opinion, I prefer Trelby over Celtx.

You could also use any text editor to write in the Fountain Syntax

I currently use Sublime Text 2 and Fountain, but I am going to try Vim for my next project.

After some poking around, I found out the name of that other script was "Rule of the Bone" but can't find a PDF, BUT --

-- You can read "Knuckle Sandwich" here

The Healthy Benefits of Cannibalism (80 pages)

Four men, for various reasons of importance, must carpool cross-country to Seattle to beat a figurative ticking time bomb.

Mark owns a used video game store with his girlfriend Gwen. Due to Mark's fear of flying, Gwen attends a national gaming convention alone in Seattle where by chance she reacquaints with an ex-boyfriend, Blaine. Bonnie Murdoch is a washed up actor who is banned from flying. The only gig he can get is an indie film shooting in Seattle. Nathanial is Mark's best friend and wants a rare game from the convention. Having booked his room for the weekend after the convention, Nathanial must get to Seattle this weekend. Playing on Mark's fear of infidelity and Bonnie's frugalness, Nathanial convinces them to carpool.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/254719018/The-Healthy-Benefits-of-Cannibalism?secret_password=TN5ZrYRCqbWxX0OAoTgI

QUESTIONS: -Is it a satisfying story? -Are the conflicts clearly presented? -Are the character arcs clear? -What can I do to become better at the craft?

Thank you.

[SCRIPT SHARE] - "Arcadia"

"Thieves, bounty hunters, and crime lords collide while searching for a lost treasure in this modern-day western."

Synopsis:

A drug dealer named "Fantana" contacts a crime lord named "Dan Rezudo," claiming to have the coordinates to Arcadia, the resting place of a lost treasure. Dan and his subordinate Jack recruit two bank robbers, "Frankie" (a girl), "Tony", and a bounty hunter named "Corso" to go retrieve those coordinates and find Arcadia.

Specific questions:

As a reader, does the plot take too long to get the ball rolling? The intent was to do character intros, then put those characters in a room and see what happens. The plot unfolds from there. I'm planning on cutting anything that is too superfluous.

A broader question: Is it too Tarantinoesque? Do you get the feel of an amateur trying to replicate Pulp Fiction? If so, definitely let me know. That is not my intention, however I would understand the criticism because my style is similar. In my defense, it's just how the writing came out.

How much dialogue is garbage?

Is the story too convoluted? If so is that a good or bad thing? Sometimes a convoluted plot can be better.

How's the description and action? Too brief or too much?

Otherwise, I'm looking for honest, shotgun-to-the-face criticism (constructive of course).

https://www.scribd.com/doc/250211631/Arcadia

This is my first screenplay so I'm extremely proud to have finished it. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Not really music, but I like to listen to background ambient noise. Here are a couple of my latest favorites, but there are others:

http://coffitivity.com/

http://asoftmurmur.com/

I can't stand silence, so I usually need something in the bg and these really help me concentrate.

Go to writerduet set up an account and format this correctly. Dialogue isn't just center justified.

Some notes on the first page:

>(Describe the car) ~~race car~~ is chasing another IndyCar ~~in front of it~~(If it is chasing it, we already know it is in front of it), gradually gaining on it. ~~We see this from the driver’s first person perspective.~~ (Deciding what perspective this is seen from is the directors job. A trick you can get around this is by describing the gauges and view through the small windshield. This puts the image of being first person without directly telling the director what to do.) Screen fades to black.

>Driver(Age? Description? also if this is their name it needs to be in all caps when they are introduced in the script.) is now being wheeled into the back of an ambulance by paramedics. The ambulance doors shut and the screen cuts to black.

Maybe give a clue to jump forward or jumping backward in time during the switches between the ambulance and the race.

Deciding how the title fades on to screen is a job for someone else not you. You can just put [TITLE UP].

You don't fade to black and then cut to. I'm pretty sure a cut to is for when it's one scene that abruptly cuts to another. You can just have the next slug line.

Deciding when to use a close up is not your job. Describe his weary eyes or something like that if you need a close up.

Your watermark makes this incredibly hard to read and doesn't really protect you much since you can highlight the text and copy and paste it.

I'm not going to comment on the story itself, but I need to point out two large pieces of advice.

1. Read a few screenplays and learn format. This looks nothing like a script should look. You need to spend a little time studying the craft to determine how things should look. You just won't be taken seriously if you can't get the format down pat.

2. You wrote it in Google Docs; instead, use WriterDuet for writing instead. There is a free version and it is going to be much better than Google Docs for what you need.

3. Keep writing!

First one I did in college was embarassing. I blame the actors :).
My senior thesis was awesome though. Still proud of that sucker. Shot it a few years ago based around An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. https://vimeo.com/13445498

The experience was interesting as I shot it with a friend of mine. It was weird debating dialogue and what sounds "natural" versus what didn't. Learning how to deal with a small budget (I think it was like $300 at the end of the day), working with inexperienced actors/actresses, finding out that not everyone wants you to shoot on their location, OMGLIGHTING... But at the end of the day, seeing it broadcast on my school's big screen was unreal :).

If you don't mind shelling $90 then this Masterclass by Werner Herzog could be something. I've enrolled there myself and hoping to see what I can learn. https://www.masterclass.com/classes/werner-herzog-teaches-filmmaking He is one of my favorite documentary filmmakers.

A helpful tool to find and fix issues of passive voice is the writing tool Hemingway, has anyone here heard of it? It's not a screenwriting tool but rather a general text editor that can analyse your writing and in real time highlights issues like the general reading level, sentence complexity, the presence of adverbs, and instances of passive voice. I feel like I'm being clumsy describing it but it's really visually intuitive when you see it, and the browser version is free to use ( http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ )

There are 1000s of mind mapping software out there.

Literature and Latte, the people that make Scrivener, made a mind mapping-like software called Scapple.

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scapple.php

To answer your question, no one has every written a script entirely using a mind mapping software. People will use screenwriting software when writing the script.

To outline, there are 1000 different methods people use. Some of the most popular are: scribbling on paper with a pen or pencil, index cards, white boards, software solutions.

Use whatever method feels comfortable to get you to and then through the draft.

You'll be hard pressed to find a mobile screenwriting app with good outining features. IMHO, Final Draft mobile is hands down the best mobile screenwriting app, and it's dirt cheap.

I recommend signing up for a free subscription to Dynalist and use their excellent outlining features on your ipad, and then copy/paste them into your Final Draft document.

Dynalist has iOS apps and also can be accessed from any browser. I particularly like their focusing and navigating features. You can quickly zoom in on a single scene or a single beat, and then quickly move to any part of your outline. Give it a try.

The Cannes cut got released on blu ray earlier this year. It's not better or more coherent... but it is just as interesting.

https://www.amazon.com/Southland-Tales-Theatrical-Limited-Blu-ray/dp/B08LNBH522

I took a class on rewrites at UCLAE and we used the book Screenwriting is Rewriting: The Art and Craft of Professional Revision by Jack Epps, Jr.

The book changed the way I write entirely.

Basically, I go through my draft in Passes: Dialogue, Character, Scenes, etc. I break down the notes that I got into fixable bits. "I received this note about this character's dialogue" So, during the Dialogue Pass I address that dialogue all at once.

By breaking the rewrite into Passes and therefore smaller pieces, it gets easier to address issues one at a time rather than all at once.

https://www.amazon.com/Swim-Pond-Rain-Russians-Writing/dp/1984856022

Not about screenwriting per se but about understanding what elements make a story work -- based on the analysis of Russian short stories. A different approach and an engaging book.

Use a DJI mobile stabiliser Sorry for the Dutch version of the Amazon link. https://www.amazon.nl/DJI-Smartphone-magnetisch-opvouwbaar-dynamische/dp/B08C7TV8TN

Have good idea for a script, or copy a scene or movie to practice. look a lot YouTube videos for tips with writing, directing, filming and editing. Practice a lot. Have faith and enjoy doing this step by step. It’s like learning to driving, first learn the steering wheel, then the next thing, and next.