Screenwriting

What kinds of screenplays does Hollywood want? What screenplays are getting made? We can tell you this much: agents and producers are looking for three key elements in scripts right now…

Tom is attractive. Beatrice is beautiful. Their dentist is gorgeous. Their mail-carrier is a MILF. Having read hundreds of scripts in my career as a script reader, I’ve encountered these sentences and many others like them. In the world according to screenwriters, the universe is an attractive place. Unfortunately, in many scripts, that’s all the … Read more

Script readers read scripts. A lot of scripts. Sometimes a reader at my company will chew through 10 or more in a week. (Overall at Screenplay Readers, we’ve read over 21,000 scripts since 1999.) But what is it like for a script reader to read so many scripts? Exhausting. Fact is, most of the screenplays … Read more

Writing dialogue is easy. Writing strong dialogue — dialogue which an audience will consider authentic-sounding and believable — is an entirely different skill.

Write more interesting characters. Yes, you. You should be writing more interesting characters. Here’s a few things you can do to your draft right now. Don’t think about it. Just do it. Your characters are boring and that makes you boring and that makes us bored.  Don’t be boring. 1) Delete the scene where you … Read more

“How do I sell my screenplay?” “My screenplay is done. Now what do I do?” “How do I get my script produced?” These are the eternal questions asked by aspiring screenwriters everywhere. But, as you might’ve noticed, get paid for writing for the film and tv industry is not an easy thing to do. Why? … Read more

Aspiring screenwriters can and should use social media. But keep in mind — there are a few “best practices” you might want to put into action when using social media as a screenwriter.

Screenwriter networking is absolutely essential to any screenwriter’s career. People knowing people, referring people, befriending people — without any exaggeration, this is how films and television get made in the film industry. Once more for emphasis: meeting and working with film and tv people is mandatory if you want to make it as a paid screenwriter … Read more

Writing female characters seems to be a difficult thing to do for most screenwriters and tv writers. Bad female characters seem to be the rule rather than the exception. But there are writers working hard to change this paradigm, by introducing and developing their female characters with a bit more care and realism. And by … Read more