What is a Story Beat? In a nutshell, a story beat — as opposed to an acting beat or a parenthetical beat used in dialogue — is a single scene. In other words, a story beat is single unit of dramatic action. The dramatic action of every scene begins with a character who has a … More Scenes and Story Beats
What makes a Scene a Scene…? In my last blog, I defined a scene as a unit of story in which a character has a clear want that s/he either does or doesn’t get because of a conflict with another character, and the result of that conflict in some way advances the plot of your … More How to Write a Scene (Part 2)
What is a scene…? In screenwriting, there are many different ways to define a scene. Some will say that it is an event, something that happens or a “unit of story” that takes place in a specific location. As soon as the scene changes location, it becomes a new scene. I would disagree with … More How to Write a Scene
The Hero’s Journey There has been tons and tons of great material written about Joseph Campbell and his Hero’s Journey. Here’s my take on his incredible work. It’s my attempt to simplify it down to its core ideas in “snackable” bites that are easy to comprehend. Joseph Campbell According to Me The hero’s story is … More Joseph Campbell: The Hero’s Journey (Part 2)
The Hero’s Journey There has been tons and tons of great material written about Joseph Campbell and his Hero’s Journey. Here’s my take on his incredible work. It’s my attempt to simplify it down to its core ideas in “snackable” bites that are easy to comprehend. Joseph Campbell According to Me The hero’s story is … More Joseph Campbell: The Hero’s Journey (Part 1)
One Foot in Front of the Other A good logline is the first step in putting the pieces of your screenplay together. You need to know where each step is going to land in order to fill in the shimmies and shakes in between the hard landings that make your script special. But first you … More Loglines: An Exercise
In screenwriting “loglines” is a term commonly used as a selling device to interest a reader, producer, actor and agent in your script. There is tons of great information available in books and online about how to write winning loglines. Blake Snyder’s “Save the Cat” has an excellent chapter on what makes for a good … More Loglines: A Review
There are lots of ways for dialogue to be less effective than it should be. Let’s examine a few: Show, Don’t Tell Characters in a scene are trying to resolve a problem. If you’ve done your job well, the audience is right there trying to solve the problem with the characters. Rather than spoon-feed your … More Dialogue: The Do, the Don’t and the Out Loud
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