Screenwriting Articles
Our latest articles on screenwriting advice, script tips and screenplay analysis, as well as interviews with industry-leading screenwriters.
Mrs&MrThomas have their winning screenplay picked up by Oscar nom Producer
Hollywood’s Short Order Cooks – Life of a Screenwriter
The Number 1 Tip to Writing a Good Story!
Going deep inside the underbelly of Sicario
Write about what you know but never limit your imagination to what you’ve experienced
SHORT FILM FOR FESTIVAL DISTRIBUTION: A WORD TO THE WISE…
A Monster Calls: A Perfect Illustration Of Why We Tell Stories
Keeping your audience in suspense
The Terminator vs Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Movies For The Ear
The Difference Between Live-Action and Animation Writing
10 Questions with Carley Smale
An Interview with Doug Richardson
Getting the Best out of your Comedy Script
The Top Screenplay Contests to enter in 2017
Meetings, Managers and Moving to LA
The 12 Sub-Genres of Christmas
Pitching You Not Your Script
The top 5 things to help your film at festivals & the top 5 things to avoid
What's it all about? The enigma of 'Jaws'
Can Screenwriters really ‘Write to Market’?
5 Tips on Breaking into TV
What is Superman’s motivation?
Interview with Filmmaker Roberto Bentivegna
Top 10 Most Common Mistakes Script Readers Encounter
Tips for Pitching TV Shows by Shore Judge
Five shorts that launched careers – and how YOU can do the same’
Does a Spec Script still have worth?
Tips on Applying to Writer Development Schemes
Q&A with Writer/Director Duncan Nicoll
My experience writing Blow Out for De Palma
What Makes a Great Short Film?
Why I love The Sopranos Pilot by DAVID CHASE
Why I love Dear White People
Why I love Disposable Lovers by Desiree Akhavan
10 Things To Consider When Writing A Short Screenplay
Top 10 Spec Script Story Clichés
Interview with Oscar Winner, Ben Cleary
Joy - Review
Truth - Review
The Myth of Dr. Phil-izing Characters
The Myth Of The First Ten Pages
Should Every Scene Move The Plot Forward?
Preparing Your Script to be Read
The Myth of The SHOW, DON’T TELL
The Myth Of The Three-Act Structure
Getting Past the Reader
The Myth Of The Screenwriting Guru
Why Do the Penguins of the Madagascar Movie Work?
The impact that agreeing or refusing Pentagon script approval can have on a film
The Evolving Protagonist in U.S Television
How to Write Dialogue
Why Screenwriters Should Marry Directors
Creating Compelling Characters
The Rules of Ensemble through the Rules of Attraction
Stalker - Script Analysis
The Musical ‘One genre to rule them all?’
Is Genre a Tool or a Trap for the Screenwriter?
The use of Narration in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’
Podcast – Talking with Screenwriter J. Mills Goodloe
Short Term 12 - Script Analysis
Apocalypse Now - Script Analysis
The Selfish Giant - Script Analysis
Podcast - The Squeeze
Ashley Scott Meyers - Podcast
The Big Lebowski - Script Analysis
Drive - Script Analysis
Christopher Figg - Judges Interview
UP Montage ‘Shortcut to success?’
Network - Script Analysis
Kees Kasander - Judges Interview
Jeffrey Caine - Judges Interview
Ray Lawrence - Judges Interview
Tony Grisoni - Judges Interview
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Mrs&MrThomas have their winning screenplay picked up by Oscar nom Producer
Shore Scripts are proud to announce that Mrs&MrThomas’ (Nell & Dave Garfath-Cox) 2016 winning feature screenplay, The Assessor, has been optioned by Oscar nominated producer, Stephen Woolley, and his producing partners -
Hollywood’s Short Order Cooks – Life of a Screenwriter
William Goldman say "cameramen have much better lives than writers…because nobody says to a cameraman, ‘I’ll fix the lighting,’ because nobody knows how to do it. But everybody knows words…The only one who gets screwed around with basically is the writer, because…everybody knows the alphabet.” -
The Number 1 Tip to Writing a Good Story!
Essential to writing a dramatic story is creating a high-value, layered, and integrated central conflict... -
Going deep inside the underbelly of Sicario
The opening sequence of Denis Villeneuve’s thriller Sicario serves as a precursor of things to come as idealistic, by-the-books FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) finds herself in something entirely different than expected when storming a compound supposedly holding hostages. -
Write about what you know but never limit your imagination to what you’ve experienced
“But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.” says Frodo at the end of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’. “How do you pick up the pieces of an old life?” ponders Elija Wood as Frodo as he wanders around Bag End listlessly at the end of Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’. -
SHORT FILM FOR FESTIVAL DISTRIBUTION: A WORD TO THE WISE…
Here at the Edinburgh Short Film Festival, we’ve been curating short film programmes for our event and other festivals for 7 years, but in all that time, we’ve rarely been asked about what it is we’re looking for when it comes to short film, and what it takes for a film to make a programme. So, we’ve put together some thoughts on short film and programming which we hope, will pass on some useful pointers. -
A Monster Calls: A Perfect Illustration Of Why We Tell Stories
“It begins like so many stories with a boy too old to be a kid, too young to be a man… and a nightmare.” — The Monster This analysis of the film contains spoilers which may differ from the book. -
Keeping your audience in suspense
There’s something about settling down in the dark of night to watch a well done creeper-feature, the kind that builds its atmosphere in layers like thick fog that keeps one guessing as to what’s really going on. -
The Terminator vs Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The debate as to which of Cameron’s killer cyborg movies is the best has raged since ‘Judgment Day’ was released in 1991. Of the 1652 people who voted in an IMDb Face-Off pole, 1206 chose ‘Terminator 2’; a survey of critics on Indiewire was split right down the middle; Terminator 2 is routinely cited along with ‘Empire Strikes Back’, ‘The Godfather: Part 2’ and ‘Toy Story 2’ as one of the few instances where the sequel is better than the original. -
Movies For The Ear
I write drama for radio. I have done so for years. I write out of choice. Not because I think it will improve my screenwriting (although it does). But because I love doing it and because I love telling stories that get made. The audience figures aren’t bad either. My ten-part adaptations of CJ Sansom’s Shardlake novels were listened to by around one million people each time. -
The Difference Between Live-Action and Animation Writing
If you want to write animation, or if you just want to produce or direct it, it’s important to know the difference between live action and animation writing. -
10 Questions with Carley Smale
Carley Smale is both a writer and director of development who’s worked extensively at Chesler/Perlmutter Productions, one of the leading producers and distributors of television movies in Canada and the US, and is now represented by Integral Artists and is pursuing a full-time writing career. -
An Interview with Doug Richardson
Doug Richardson first gained national attention when his screenplay Hell Bent… and Back was the first spec script to sell in Hollywood for a million dollars. He later went on adapt Walter Wager’s novel 58 Minutes into what was to become Die Hard 2, as well as writing/producing films such as Bad Boys (1995), Money Train (1995) and Hostage (2005). In between projects, Doug turned to writing thriller novels and penned his first novel, Dark Horse in 1997. Blood Money (2013) is the first of his continuing Lucky Dey thriller series. Here, Doug talks novels vs. screenplays. -
Getting the Best out of your Comedy Script
Like most new writers, in my early days as a screenwriter, I would attend as many relevant industry events about writing, comedy, TV and film, in an effort to break through. A lot of advice will start to sound fairly familiar, but one piece of advice that was later to ring fairly true, and I’ve adopted to this day, is that to get the best out of your comedy script, put it in the hands of comedians. -
The Top Screenplay Contests to enter in 2017
Every year new writers gain visibility, and indeed credibility, by way of screenwriting contests. But every year it seems there’s a wider range of screenwriting contests to choose from. Knowing which are worth their salt can be tricky! -
Meetings, Managers and Moving to LA
For anyone serious about making it as screenwriter, there’s the inevitable question about whether you need to move to Los Angeles in order to really have a chance at any surmountable success. This life changing decision can be as terrifying as it can be thrilling, so I decided to get some advice on the subject from up and coming TV writer Keith Storrier -
The 12 Sub-Genres of Christmas
If you’re a writer wanting to tap into that Christmas movie market you don’t need to stick to the friendly fat reverse-burglar. As these Christmas genre movies show, there’s plenty of room to mix Old Nick with St. Nick. -
Pitching You Not Your Script
Pitching is something every writer is going to have to do, whether that’s in front of a panel, at a one to one meeting, or just to friends and family when trying to test out ideas. -
The top 5 things to help your film at festivals & the top 5 things to avoid
A little while ago, Lee at Shore Scripts asked us to pass out the Skinny on what makes festival programmers get to like your films and what kind of things it’s best to avoid, so we put our heads together and by common consensus, we can positively recommend the list here, but there’s no doubt that numero uno on the top 5 things to do is: -
What's it all about? The enigma of 'Jaws'
“First things first; Jaws is not about a shark.”... -
Can Screenwriters really ‘Write to Market’?
Screenwriting can be a laborious process. As a spec writer, you can spend months if not years working on a screenplay. That’s a long time to commit to a project, especially considering that until the script sells, you’re essentially working for free. -
5 Tips on Breaking into TV
Breaking into TV writing is hard, possibly even harder than getting into the film industry. It involves constructing stories to different act structures, fast paced writing with heavily pressurized deadlines and following specific remits rather than writing your own ideas. We spoke to The Edinburgh Television Festival’s “Ones to Watch” in 2016, Chris Lindsay, who’s quickly advancing in the ranks of TV writing. -
What is Superman’s motivation?
This question pops up now and again in creative writing workshops because knowing what the main character is striving to achieve and why is the backbone of any good story. Superman presents a conundrum: why does this superhuman alien while away his days trying to fix our mess? -
Interview with Filmmaker Roberto Bentivegna
Dave Beazley speaks with Roberto Bentivegna about his career to date, and how he started out in the film industry. -
Top 10 Most Common Mistakes Script Readers Encounter
Our own experience as writers and extensive experience reading hundreds of screenplays means that we become very familiar with common mistakes that crop up time and again. They are often innocent mistakes, but can mean the difference between having your work seem amateur or professional. One thing to bear in mind then is that we readers (and by ‘we readers’, I mean ‘I’), have all made some, if not all, of these common mistakes listed below. -
Tips for Pitching TV Shows by Shore Judge
1. Wear your favorite shoes. Confession, this is the least valuable suggestion on here. Your clothing choices only help if they give you confidence and nothing will give you confidence (of the kind you actually need) more than having a great pitch. -
Five shorts that launched careers – and how YOU can do the same’
What’s the point of short films? They’re hard to make, nigh-on impossible to finance, and there’s nowhere for the mainstream to see them. You spend months, even years (in my case) agonizing over twenty pages, honing your dialogue, scrutinising every plot point…all for it to be fobbed off by actors, producers and agents alike. So…what’s the point? -
Does a Spec Script still have worth?
The spec script aka the screenplay you don’t get paid to write. It’s a calling card, it’s how you learn the craft, but more importantly, it’s what you’re going to sell and it’s going to kick off your Hollywood screenwriting career. But just how realistic is this notion? -
Tips on Applying to Writer Development Schemes
3 Tips on Applying to Writer Development Schemes from SFTN Talent Development Executive Claudia Yusef -
Q&A with Writer/Director Duncan Nicoll
Writer/Director Duncan Nicoll reveals why you should be applying to a funded screenwriting scheme -
My experience writing Blow Out for De Palma
Will Mesce's experience of winning perhaps the first ever screenwriting contest - headed up by Brian De Palma -
What Makes a Great Short Film?
One of the most obvious avenues for a short film is putting it through the festival circuit, but with increased submissions year on year and with tough competition to beat, we thought we’d get some inside tips from Festival Director, Paul Bruce, of the Edinburgh Short Film Festival, on just exactly what makes a stand out short film. -
Why I love The Sopranos Pilot by DAVID CHASE
In the pilot episode of The Sopranos (1999-2007), written by show creator David Chase, New Jersey mobster ANTHONY ‘TONY’ SOPRANO starts seeing therapist DR. JENNIFER MELFI due to a recent panic attack. -
Why I love Dear White People
Dear White People, written and directed by Justin Simien, is a satire centring on escalating racial tension at the fictional, prestigious and predominately white Winchester College. -
Why I love Disposable Lovers by Desiree Akhavan
In Disposable Lovers, the script to Akhavan’s feature film debut Appropriate Behavior, SHIRIN, a bisexual Brooklynite and the daughter of well-off Iranian immigrants, is left distraught and homeless after her girlfriend MAXINE breaks up with her. -
10 Things To Consider When Writing A Short Screenplay
Click for all the info... -
Top 10 Spec Script Story Clichés
Embarking on storylines with these problems can lead you into treacherous waters when it comes to engaging your script reader! So let’s take a look at the spec script pile: -
Interview with Oscar Winner, Ben Cleary
Shore Scripts Alumni, Ben Cleary, talks to us about his Oscar Winning Short Film Stutterer. -
Joy - Review
In 1980s New York Joy Mangano is a young, creative and able woman; she's also put-upon by her dysfunctional family, let down by her ex-husband, and broke. What follows is the rags-to-riches story that you're expecting, but a film that you're not. -
Truth - Review
It’s 2004 and election time again in the United States. There’s plenty of mud slinging on both sides and the polls are neck and neck. Then CBS 60 Minutes reporter Mary Mapes stumbles on a story that might just change everything… -
The Myth of Dr. Phil-izing Characters
This memory comes to me from, I believe, the first season of Saturday Night Live, back in 1975. John Belushi was doing a skit with guest host Robert Klein. -
The Myth Of The First Ten Pages
The 1st Ten Pages rule is a true, real fact, as much as death and taxes. And about as pleasant. Here’s how real I believe that rule is: I’ll put money down on the table right now that says a lot of script readers won’t even give you that much breathing space; you’re lucky if they give you the ten. -
Should Every Scene Move The Plot Forward?
Joel and Ethan Coen are among the most elegant violators of many of the concepts addressed in this series, and the idea that every scene needs to drive the plot forward is no exception. -
Preparing Your Script to be Read
Congratulations. You’ve written a screenplay. You might not realize it, but you’re already miles ahead of the game. -
The Myth of The SHOW, DON’T TELL
Of all the myths we’ve looked at in this series, none of them drives me up the wall as much as this one. Not coincidently, I find it the easiest to deconstruct. Maybe because it’s so damned arbitrary. -
The Myth Of The Three-Act Structure
“Ok, Bill, around page 30 we have to move into our second act...” Says who? Was there some research I’m unaware of that says the human brain automatically loses interest if there’s not a major plot turn a half-hour into a movie? If it comes earlier? Later? -
Getting Past the Reader
Getting your finished spec script into the right hands can often feel like an on going upward struggle. For those of us who are just starting out, or are yet to secure the ever-elusive agent, there are limited ways in which to get your script seen by the right people. -
The Myth Of The Screenwriting Guru
Researching this piece, I went into Amazon and did a search for “books on screenwriting.” I came up with 8800 results. Eight thousand, eight hundred. Eight-eight-zero-zero. Wow. -
Why Do the Penguins of the Madagascar Movie Work?
With this article, I hope to give you an example of how to increase your knowledge about screenwriting while still being able to make time for your family. -
The impact that agreeing or refusing Pentagon script approval can have on a film
This assignment delivers strong examples from the U.S film industry, which demonstrates the extent to which Pentagon script approval, particularly those seeking military aid for their respective stories, can support or wound productions. -
The Evolving Protagonist in U.S Television
Why do you and me have such high levels of empathy towards anti-heroes? -
How to Write Dialogue
When we hear good dialogue in a film it sounds natural. The words spoken are believable, convincing, and never take you out of the story. -
Why Screenwriters Should Marry Directors
Now, it has been said, ad infinitum, that two heads are better than one. In terms of creative collaboration, nothing beats a true meeting of the minds. It’s the greatest high in the world. -
Creating Compelling Characters
“You can not dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.” -
The Rules of Ensemble through the Rules of Attraction
Frank Daniel defined dramatic story structure as “Somebody wants something badly and is having difficulty getting it.” Simple, clear and concise, well certainly in single protagonist films but how does it work if you have a multi-protagonist piece? -
Stalker - Script Analysis
“One way or another, our small country has seen the birth of a miracle – the Zone. We immediately sent troops there. They haven’t come back.” Lines from opening credits of Stalker. -
The Musical ‘One genre to rule them all?’
Today, it’s hard to come across any new film release which isn’t advertised or promoted as being multi or mixed genre. This may be a direct result of the ever-increasing amount of genres and sub genres out there or just a simple marketing strategy to encourage larger audiences. -
Is Genre a Tool or a Trap for the Screenwriter?
This essay will seek to examine the concept of film genre. It will explore its definition and the advantages and disadvantages of how genre theory can help/hinder the screenwriting process. It will mainly, though not exclusively, draw upon examples from the science fiction genre. -
The use of Narration in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’
In his screenwriting bible, Story, Robert McKee forever demonized the use of voice-over narration as a screenwriting device in the space of just two pages. He states that “the trend toward using telling narration throughout a film threatens the future of our art” -
Podcast – Talking with Screenwriter J. Mills Goodloe
In this episode of the podcast I talk with Screenwriter J. Mills Goodloe about how he got his start in the industry, transitioned into screenwriting, and got his latest film, The Age of Adaline Starring Blake Lively And Harrison Ford, finally produced. -
Short Term 12 - Script Analysis
Short Term 12 tells the story of Grace (Brie Larson), a 20 something group-home employee who is all hard-shell-soft-centre and the at-risk-teens in her care. When working with the kids, whose tribulations range from suicidal tendencies to violent behaviour, she advocates the same emotional openness she isn’t able to implement in her own personal life. -
Apocalypse Now - Script Analysis
In 1969 Francis Ford Coppola ordered a Vietnam War screenplay to be penned by a relatively unknown John Milius. It was loosely based on the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness with the setting transplanted to Vietnam. A decade later one of the most troubled productions in film history received eight Oscar nominations and won two. -
The Selfish Giant - Script Analysis
Following her verbatim style feature documentary The Arbor Barnard returns to the harsh realities of Bradford to tell the story of deprived teenage friends Arbor (Conner Chapman) and Swifty (Shaun Thomas) who, after having been excluded from school, turn to scrapping to support their struggling mothers. -
Podcast - The Squeeze
In this latest episode of the podcast, Ashley talks with screenwriter and director Terry Jastrow about how he got his new film, The Squeeze, written and produced. -
Ashley Scott Meyers - Podcast
Ashley Scott Meyers is a screenwriter and blogger / podcaster. Since beginning his career as a screenwriter in the late 1990’s he’s optioned more than two dozen feature screenplays and sold a half dozen. Here he talks with screenwriter, John Jarrell -
The Big Lebowski - Script Analysis
"With this one we sort of figured, you know, if things become a little bit too complicated or unclear, it really doesn’t matter. I mean, the plot is kind of not the…and again, this is similar to Chandler. The plot is sort of secondary to the other things that are sort of going on in the piece. I think that if people get a little confused it’s not necessarily going to get in the way of them enjoying the movie." Joel Coen. -
Drive - Script Analysis
Violence drives Drive… Refn creates a fever dream that sucks you in. Or maybe you’ll hate it. Drive is a polarizer. It’s also pure cinema, a grenade of image and sound ready to blow. -
Christopher Figg - Judges Interview
Interview with one of our Judges here at Shore Scripts. -
UP Montage ‘Shortcut to success?’
Montage often falls into the same category as voice over, dream sequences and flashbacks, as being an over used screenwriting gimmick which is widely regarded as being an easy shortcut to reveal information and which is almost never emotionally involving. -
Network - Script Analysis
"I wanted everyone, every man, woman or child to realize that they had a choice. I wanted them to know that they have the right to get angry, to get mad. They have the right to say to themselves, to each other, to the world at large, that they had worth, they had value. The speech wrote itself, because that was Beale’s battle cry for the people." ~Paddy Chayefsky on Howard Beale’s “Mad as Hell” speech -
Kees Kasander - Judges Interview
Interview with one of our Judges here at Shore Scripts. -
Jeffrey Caine - Judges Interview
Interview with one of our Judges here at Shore Scripts. -
Ray Lawrence - Judges Interview
Interview with one of our Judges here at Shore Scripts. -
Tony Grisoni - Judges Interview
Interview with one of our Judges here at Shore Scripts.