Screenwriting Articles

Selling a spec script as a Hollywood outsider has its advantages. One of the great things about being an outsider in Hollywood is the fact that you can write screenplays that interest you. This can give you a serious advantage when writing a spec screenplay. Often, a screenwriter who is on contract to Hollywood is commissioned to write stories that …

I’d like to go back to the wonderful producer Gary Goldstein again for some great advice on how to network in Hollywood. Goldstein personally doesn’t believe in the value of just going out and getting a bunch of business cards. “I don’t see any real value in doing that,” Goldstein says. Instead, he recommends that we spend our time on …

I was thinking this over on the weekend… what is the best way to get a screenplay made into a movie? And I was suddenly reminded of something that Gary Goldstein (producer of Pretty Woman, Under Siege and The Mothman Prohecies once said). The question was put to Mr. Goldstein whether or not it was important to be a known screenwriter …

Hollywood has a notorious history of making movies for men, or more specifically, adolescent and twenty-something men. This is understandable. The young male audience makes up a huge portion of the movie-going public. And although this portion of the market is a large part of the pie, there is still a huge segment of the movie-going public left over. Take …

Screenwriting coach Michel Hauge, author of Sell Your Screenplay In 60 Seconds, gives some nice advice to screenwriters who want to sell their script. Once you’ve finished writing your script you are now ready to sell it. So, your goal at this stage is to persuade an agent or producer to read your screenplay. You’ll have about 60 seconds to …

This article could also be titled “Writing Screenplays that Sell”, because essentially that’s what writing for a studio is all about, making the sale. Now, a lot of screenwriters have this inner-instinct where they say to themselves, “I’m going to write something that’s honest and real. I know the studios won’t like it. Heck, my agent’s going to hate it …

If industry reports are anything to go by, there’s good news in the air for screenwriters these days — that is, spec screenplay sales have almost tripled over the last couple of years. There was a period of time in the 1990s and 2000s when spec screenplay sales were through the roof. Some of you might recall Shane Black selling …

A few years ago I attended a writing seminar where Andre Dubus III, author of the wonderful book House of Sand and Fog, was holding a Q&A session. It was an interesting talk and I remember the topic turned to the subject of rewrites. How many rewrites should a screenwriter do? And, the more tricky question, how long should a …

As a budding screenwriter, you’ve probably read Syd Field and Robert McKee countless times. Spent hours and days and months honing your craft. Now, after all this time, you’ve finally given birth to a beautiful, baby screenplay. But who knows and who cares? The hard part is done. The writing is finished. And now, with an aching back, you stagger …

This might seem like a strange question, but working as a screenplay agent it’s a question I often thought about and discussed with my clients. Many of my clients were seasoned professionals who had worked in the entertainment industry for years. These writers were doing what they loved and had absolutely no desire to stop writing. So with these screenwriters …