I Blame Ninjas

Sigh. Some anonymous coward’s running around the web trying to smear Scott the Reader over some made-up baloney because he lost an argument on Facebook. Pathetic, right? Scott has my unreserved endorsement. I’ve used his script notes service a number of times, and he’s never been less than thoroughly professional and helpful. As I...

The Done Deal Pro screenwriting forum has a new offering: A forum set aside for a selection of pros to offer feedback on script pages. You have to register, and there are some rules for submitting pages, but it’s pretty cool. And even if you don’t wish to submit your own pages, it’s interesting...

It’s been a busy week of rewriting and rewriting, solving some foundational problems with my current project, but I’m making forward progress again. In the meantime, here’s a pretty cool summary of 10 Things Screenwriters Can Learn from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Have you noticed how often the Raiders screenplay gets brought up...

I’m very slowly learning the art of thanking people for feedback, then going ahead and doing what I think is best for the story, rather than arguing points or, my particular downfall, trying to explain what I really meant. I hope I’ve always been gracious about taking notes on my scripts, but as a...

The experiment in writing full-time’s going pretty well. I’m averaging seven pages a day on my current screenplay, and doing a fairly good job of balancing daily life against writing — not slipping on cooking dinner instead of going out, housework, or other things that sometimes got neglected back when I was writing around...

When I outline a project, I’ve normally been thinking about the story and characters for some time. I’ll often have a list of random ideas of stuff that could  happen, too. First I hash out the major turning points – the break into Act II, the midpoint, the all is lost...

I’ve been re-outlining my contained horror screenplay this past week so I can get a fresh start on the rewrite today as I start my experiment in writing full-time. I realized in reworking the first act that I had not taken full advantage of the stronger setup I’m using this time around, and that some...

Battling a nasty cold, re-outlining my contained horror project, and starting my last week at work, so I’m going to have to direct you to other folks today for interesting new content. Alexandra Sokoloff continues her analysis of Raiders of the Lost Ark with a look at Act II. And Emily Blake posts some...