Heidi Grant Halvorson of the Harvard Business Review has written a great article on the mindsets that keep us from being productive and what we can do to combat those feelings. Her advice applies to all types of work, but the lack of motivation she's talking about is exactly the kind most writers suffer from.... Continue Reading →
The Un-Rules of Screenwriting: Rob Edward’s List
E.B. White wrote that there are “no inflexible rules by which the young writer may steer his course. He will often find himself steering by stars that are disturbingly in motion.” With this in mind, we’ve asked working screenwriters to share a list of the “un-rules” that they find most helpful in their writing careers. We... Continue Reading →
Ask LA Screenwriter: Breaking Into TV Writing
We're doing something new over here at LA Screenwriter. If you have any specific questions about screenwriting, the film industry, or life in general, send them to [email protected], and I'll do my best to answer. This week's question comes from Kat. She writes: First off, I have to say I just recently stumbled upon your... Continue Reading →
Fall In Love With Your Writing
Perhaps the hardest part of working toward your first script sale is keeping a positive attitude. When you have to go through so many people telling you that your story "isn't for them" or "needs a little work" or worse, that they "didn't get it," it can be horribly difficult to stay positive about your... Continue Reading →
How to Write a Better Female Protagonist
Danny Manus of No Bull Script Consulting recently wrote a great article for Script Magazine about the lack of strong, well-rounded, likeable female characters on the silver screen these days. I highly recommend reading the full article, but here are a few of the highlights: Recently, at the Final Draft Screenwriting Awards, the infamous Nancy Meyers labeled... Continue Reading →
How to Write a Compelling Logline
Noam Kroll of IndieWire recently wrote an excellent article on the art of writing a logline. The logline is a one to two sentence description of your film that you will use to pitch your story idea to agents, managers, and producers. The logline is also an essential tool in developing your story. Here's what... Continue Reading →
How Not to Embarrass Yourself During a Pitch
Tim John of Think Hollywood recently shared ten tips that he's learned over his years of pitching to Hollywood execs. His list begins: 1. BE CONFIDENT BUT NEVER COCKY. Never be “Too smart for the room”. But don’t be self-effacing either. Many “El Laysians” just don’t get irony. I once went to a meeting at... Continue Reading →
30 Screenwriting Sites You Should Follow
Screen Craft has put together a list of 30 Facebook pages that every screenwriter should follow. If you'd rather not have your Facebook page overrun with too many updates, almost all of these Facebook pages also have good old fashioned websites associated with them. (And if you do like Facebook updates, remember to follow us... Continue Reading →
14 Working Screenwriters & Their Top Advice
Adam Sternbergh of The New York Times recently put together profiles of fourteen up and coming screenwriters. Each writer shares their top screenwriting tips. Take a look: It’s notable that many of these writers — most, in fact — also directed their own scripts (Bell, Bujalski, Chandor, Holofcener, Jonze, Linklater, Polley), and several also star... Continue Reading →
10 Rom Com Truisms
Billy Mernit of Living the Romantic Comedy recently compiled a list of 10 romantic comedy truisms with links to his articles supporting and providing advice for each point. If you're working on a rom com, this list is essential reading.