Sean Lawrence

  “Sit, Sequence. Sit. Good dog.” Woof! Okay, so sequences might not be not be our favorite four-legged friends, but they sure are killer gifts to the screenwriter.  In screenwriting, a sequence is a self-contained unit of  action  in your screenplay, usually between 10 to 15 pages, that has its own specific tension and an event around or towards which it is focused.

  By Michael Schilf · January 24, 2010 The  audience  has seen the journey through which our  protagonist  has traveled. Yet  the audience  still wants reassurance that all is well, that  the characters  have changed, and a glimpse of his/her future. Once the  second act  is resolved, there is usually a twist and new confrontation, which pushes us into the third act conflict. Often this is the result of the plot and subplot main culmination: the conflicts of the plot and sub-plot colliding. In the third act,  the protagonist  will demonstrate his/her  character arc  in the manner in which he/she chooses to resolve the third act conflict. (For instance: In the beginning, a low-down character may choose to lie or cheat to resolve an issue, but since his/her arc has taught him/her morals, he/she tries to honestly resolve the situation). The character’s new vision and his/her attempt to end the third act conflict lea...

  By Michael Schilf · January 24, 2010 This is the meat and potatoes portion… AND the most difficult part of  writing a screenplay . Most mediocre and flawed screenplays are plagued by slow or meandering second acts. Keep in mind the main tension – and that your character should always be on the path to resolving that tension. The second act begins right after the lock-in: the moment when the character is stuck in the predicament and main tension – it is too late to turn back, so he/she must go forward. Now the  character  aims towards the goal,  the objective , and he/she has the first meeting of the obstacles and antagonists or circumstances, always with  rising actions . The  first sequence  usually presents the alternative solutions. What are the choices? What should be done? And the character selects one alternative, and if it should be the worst one, then he selects another one, and in the meantime, the rest of the alternatives are eliminate...

  By Michael Schilf · January 24, 2010 Usually  the story  really begins at the moment when the first character faces the difficulty that he or she has to solve, and it better be a clear difficulty, and he better realize that he must do something. Dramatic form means  action , and action brings tension. So the awareness of the tension, and the clarification of what the nature of your tension is, helps to build the whole  script . ACT ONE: ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS TONE:  Very quickly you want to establish the tone of the script: is it a serious film, a comedy, a fantasy, a spoof? Let people know right away that it is okay to laugh, to cry, to dream, etc. THEME:  You will also want to establish the theme of the film – what message are you trying to convey: “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, “The underdog triumphs”, “Good versus evil”. WORLD OF THE STORY:  As the story begins, you will introduce the world of the story – where does it take place? What is d...

  How many words should one write per day?   It's a question that all writers have asked since pen first touched paper: how many words should I be writing per day? Obviously, there is no one right answer, but we dug up the word counts of several famous authors to see how we compare with writers like Twain and Hemingway.  Read the article >>      Our favorite funny gifts for writers Writers can get a bad rap for being brooding loners who get tunnel vision when working on a project. Lighten up the writer in your life with our top five witty wares for wordsmiths. See our picks >>       Win a copy of  The World Until Yesterday   This week we're fortunate enough to be giving away a major work by an acclaimed best-selling author – and a Pulitzer Prize winner at that. Enter by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, August 7th for your chance to win a copy of  The World Until Yesterday  by Jared Diamond, which the  Christian Scien...

  Let’s first start by defining what a screenplay is NOT. It is not a play, and it certainly is not a novel. Unlike the novelist, who has complete freedom to explore any point of view, shift between conscious and subconscious mind, explore a  character  or a  story  from multiple perspectives, etc., the screenwriter MUST write in present tense and only what the  audience  can SEE and HEAR. A screenplay is  VISUAL . The playwriter, on the other hand, doesn’t have to worry about the visual medium. Often the play is simply a handful of characters – or even only one – standing there on a barren stage. Dialogue, Music, Lighting are all part of the stage. High speed car chases, however, belong in the movies.  So if you’ve written a “Filmed Play”, look for ways to make it visual. Turn it into a movie.

  By Michael Schilf · June 27, 2010 Subtext is what a character is really saying between the lines, and it is revealed by a character’s  actions and reactions . If the text is the words we see on the page, the subtext is all the content underneath that is not announced explicitly by  the characters  but is understood by the reader or viewer as the  scene ,  sequence , or  screenplay  unfolds.  Subtext has always been a part of storytelling. Novelists have no boundaries, free to go into any character’s point of view and share his or her inner thoughts, wants, or desires with the reader. Playwrights have a harder time because they can’t just always bring the audience into the head of a particular character at any given time, but there are a few tricks they can pull out of the bag. The dramatist can always use the helpful aside: when all action on the stage stops so one character can address  the audience  directly to express his or he...