Story & Structure · 1 min

Set Your Story In A Small Little World

Robert McKee was not referring to Toy Story 3 when he said this. Yet it does apply to that movie in the same way it does…

News · 7 min

The Art of Romantic Comedy

Karel Segers attended the Michael Hauge/Steve Kaplan double bill in Sydney and Vi Truong did the same in Melbourne. We have mixed our reviews of the…

MM on Monday · 12 min

John Michael Hayes, Lucky Bastard

John Michael Hayes was the one screenwriter who worked more often with Alfred Hitchcock than any other screenwriter, having written the scripts for Rear Window, To…

Best of the Web · 1 min

Best o/t Web 27 Jun

:: Toy Story 3: It's about people :: Pixar Wars (fun) :: Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky and his craft. :: The grammar game: how to win. ::…

Story & Structure · 6 min

Beat Writer’s Block

Some days, when you’re writing a script, are just downright awful.  Right? You sit there staring at the screen or the paper and you’re… What?  Empty,…

Book Reviews · 5 min

Writing Drama (4)

Yves Lavandier's book Writing Drama currently rates as the absolute favorite of our book reviewer Jack Brislee. To give you the opportunity to delve into Lavandier's…

Story & Structure · 1 min

Monomyth for Gamers

Story Department intern Rusty asked: "all over the blog, I keep reading about the Hero's Journey. At the risk of sounding dumb, is this a book…

Story & Structure · 4 min

Don’t Try This At Home

Energized by the words of the Guru, the screenwriter heads home and starts rewriting like mad. Never did she deliver a draft so great, so quickly.…

MM on Monday · 6 min

The Timid Screenwriter (1)

I reread Stephen King’s how-to diatribe, On Writing. In fact, I read quite a few grammar books as a refresher and to help spice up my…

Best of the Web · 1 min

Best o/t Web 20 Jun

:: Blogger Joshua Patterson on horror movies. :: Christopher Nolan not crazy for 3D. :: Never a smash hit, always a guilty pleasure. :: Tweet all…

Story & Structure · 3 min

Two Journeys of Change

A day in Michael Hauge's romcom seminar inspired me to republish this brief article I wrote about a year and a half ago. Hauge claims the…

Pitching & Selling · 3 min

Network where the action is

I'm not good at networking or socialising. At least I never thought I was. People kept telling me to go to certain parties, but until recently…

Book Reviews · 3 min

Writing Drama (3)

Yves Lavandier's book Writing Drama currently rates as the absolute favorite of our book reviewer Jack Brislee. To give you the opportunity to delve into Lavandier's…

Story & Structure · 1 min

Hitch on Pure Cinema

"Photographs of people talking... bares no relation to the art of the cinema." That quote alone makes this clip of Hitchcock wisdom worth watching. Will your…

Pitching & Selling · 6 min

Networking for Scribes (Twelve Easy Steps)

It's no secret that part of every screenwriter's job is to get the work out. By any means necessary. Writing a great script is indeed only…