Before we talk about revision, I think we should talk about good writing, which is, of course, the goal of revising. More specifically, I’d like to say a few words about what good writing isn’t. Most importantly, it isn’t something that will please all readers. It will please your people. By “your people,” I mean
This has been an exciting and emotional year in my writing career. In addition to getting my first screenplay optioned, my feature script, DETROIT, has garnered some major attention from Disney, The Black List, The Page Awards, The Nicholl Fellowship, Sundance Labs, and from Fresh-Voices. But nothing has felt quite as gratifying as this industry
People in the industry will be interested or not interested in your script before they ever read it. I’ve had a hard time wrapping my head around this one, but here’s the situation: With few exceptions, studios today don’t make movies that aren’t based on some already popular intellectual material—a novel, a video game, a
In this interview, LeMar McLean and I discuss: Balancing writing with family. Breaking into the screenwriting business. The Black List. The city of Detroit. My screenplay about the Motor City. And the virtues of the original Planet of the Apes movie! http://marzdailymedia.com/2014/01/14/marz-media-podcast-episode-74-robert-rue/
Paradoxically, Act III writes Act I. The beats of a movie’s beginning should be crafted by knowing where the protagonist will end up. Act I can only be (re)written successfully by imagining the character at the end of the movie and then rewinding his life back to a place that is, emotionally, far enough away
A Feature Film Beat Sheet for Dramas That Has Worked For Me (Deeply influenced by Syd Field, Blake Snyder, Peter Brooks, Aristotle and Arthur Conan Doyle.) When I say that this beat sheet “has worked for me,” I don’t mean that I have applied it like a math formula. I mean that this structure has
I’ve heard a number of very successful screenwriters say something to this effect: “Screenwriting books are bullshit. To learn the craft, you should read great screenplays.” I get it. There are B.S. elements to most screenwriting books I’ve seen. And reading great screenplays–even bad ones, actually–is an irreplaceable way to learn. But hey big time
I always tell players that when game day comes, you don’t play the way you know how to play; you play the way you’re in the habit of playing. That means that coaches are not just in the business of conveying information. They are in the business of habit-making. Every moment of practice forms a
Sometimes students write stiff, implausible stories with obvious “messages.” But sometimes they get stuck in writing a first draft for the opposite reason: they’ve devised a series of events that are believable but about which they have no (apparent) attitude. A writer’s attitude toward the characters and events in a story leads to a theme,
The Shell Drill is great for demonstrating proper man-to-man defensive positioning as the ball moves around the court. But in my experience, if it’s used too much, it winds up reinforcing bad habits. Because they don’t need to worry about the offensive players moving, defenders start to ball-watch and they begin to settle into flat-footed
