News · 2 min

For the Love of the Blog

On Friday I was a guest again on Larry Jordan's Digital Production Buzz, a talk radio on digital production. I've learned to be suspicious on those…

MM on Monday · 7 min

The Art of Dialects (2)

Mystery Man left us some time before 5 June of this year. The Story Department continues to republish his best articles on Monday. Here, you'll also…

Best of the Web · 1 min

Best o/t Web 13 Jun

:: Plot point in Act One: How big is big? :: The Hollywood "connections connections" myth. :: A day of writing, and much more. :: Mind…

Story & Structure · 6 min

The Hidden Tools of Comedy (2)

This month, Michael Hauge and Steve Kaplan will be in Australia for two weekends of story classes. Today we continue a special guest contribution by Steve…

Book Reviews · 3 min

Writing Drama (2)

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…

Video · 1 min

Writing Precious

Brief interview with Geoffrey Fletcher about his career leading up to Precious, which won him an Academy Award for Best adapted screenplay earlier this year. My…

Stuff · 2 min

Who Was Mystery Man?

Scott Myers has paid tribute to Mystery Man over the past weekend and if you haven't read it yet, make sure you go there after reading…

News · 2 min

Farewell Mystery Man

Next Saturday it would have been 100 days since I last heard from MM. When I reflected on this last week, I realized he had never…

Best of the Web · 1 min

Best o/t Web 6 Jun

:: Scott Myers pays tribute to Mystery Man :: The Joker won't come back :: Women in film, where are they? :: Don't over-research, keep it interesting.…

Story & Structure · 6 min

The Hidden Tools of Comedy (1)

Let's start off with a test. A Comedy Perception Test, to see if we're perceiving comedy with 20-20 vision. Below are 7 sentences, seven word-pictures. They don't…

Book Reviews · 2 min

Writing Drama (1)

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…

Video · 1 min

The Secret of Twilight Revealed

ScriptShadow has just published the 13 Secrets to a Great Script. Would Twilight have qualified? Let's have a look again at what that story really entails.…

Script Check · 4 min

Battling Premature Resolution?

Like anything premature it's, well ... embarrassing. Whenever you set up strong anticipation, let it linger, keep the audience wondering how it is going to be…

MM on Monday · 8 min

The Art of Dialects (1)

I type these words from my favorite leather chair in my favorite mystery cigar store. For the “Mystery Photo” in the Mar/Apr '09 issue of Script…

Best of the Web · 1 min

Best o/t Web 30 May

:: Alex Epstein revisits The Exorcist. :: Script Coverage: A Few Awful Truths. :: Why bad scripts sell. For six figures :: Do you read outside…