Few things make your screenwriting more compelling than dramatic tension.

It is one of the most effective tools you have as a storyteller.

Here's how to wield it whenever needed in your writing and where writers often go wrong. 👇 The best way to think of dramatic tension is as follows:

What the audience HOPES will happen.
vs.
What the audience FEARS will happen.

The more immediate the hope and the fear are, the more tension there is.

Screenwriting is scene work. It’s the heart of what we do. Movies are not plot points but a series of scenes and sequences.

Here are five essential questions to guide you through crafting and revising just about any scene: 👇 1. WHAT CHANGE NEEDS TO HAPPEN?

This is the most elemental question of all. Why does this scene exist?

Many ask what needs to happen, but I prefer to ask what CHANGE needs to happen to move the story forward.

99% of loglines miss the most influential factor that will sell their screenplay: the concept.

The concept is the big idea that promises the unique possibilities specific to your movie.

This is how I think about concept to ensure my screenwriting always has one. 👇 Think of concept as the engine that generates whatever genre-specific fun your screenplay is offering.

This "fun" encompasses everything from the dark tension of thrillers, to the laughter of comedies, and the raw emotion of dramas.

There's no telling where a screenplay idea comes from.

Sometimes, it's just a character that fascinates us. Great! But then what?

What do you do with them? Where do you put them? Are they worth an entire screenplay?

Here's a quick process to help figure that out. 🧵👇 As always, this is just one way to do it. Every writer has their own process.

These questions are not meant to be a magic bullet. But they should help you make decisions about what direction you want to go.

Do you struggle with theme in your screenwriting? You're not alone.

Over the years, I've spent way too much creative energy forcing a large, square peg of theme down a screenplay's round throat.

Not anymore.

Here is a more consistent approach. And it's easy.

Yes, easy. 🧵 👇 Needless to say, other writers will have their own thoughts on theme, and treat it differently.

This is by no stretch the only way.

However, I have found this to be simple and effective. This is how I work and what I teach.

I struggled with Act 2 for years. It was the barren desert where my screenplays went to die.

What changed for me was realizing the role of Act 2 in the story.

Embracing this was a huge breakthrough in my screenwriting.

Here is how I attack Act 2 now: 🧵👇 From a pure story perspective:

The job of Act 2 is for the protagonists to earn the spiritual, emotional, and physical tools to answer the dramatic question to the audience's satisfaction.

This is why Act 2 matters.

It's a common screenwriting note: The characters all sound the same!

Writers panic. They play with dialects, speech patterns.

But it's a waste of time.

Because the sound wasn't the problem.

Do this instead and you'll never worry about characters sounding the same ever again: First, most writers have rhythms they like. Patterns. Music in the dialogue.

Sorkin's Lucille Ball would be perfectly comfortable in The West Wing. Mamet is the same. Tarantino. Shakespeare.

Character's sounding the same isn't really the problem.

I used to be terrified of writing "on the nose" dialogue.

I wanted subtext instead, thinking THAT was the trait of good screenwriting. It's not.

My writing improved when I stopped worrying about subtext and focused on what was really important.

This is how I did it. 🧵👇 The most important thing for me was realizing that subtext is not a goal in and of itself.

It's a byproduct of other, more important goals.

No doubt, people saying something other than what they mean is part of the human experience.

We're told early not to direct the screenplay on the page.

It's just terrible advice.

You want the reader to see the movie on screen as they read. This will often mean evoking shots.

Here's how to do it without ever referencing the camera. 🧵👇 First, 3 key concepts that guide this process.

1) The goal of your screenplay is to evoke the emotional experience of seeing the movie on screen.

You are that film's director. The emotions. The pacing. Everything.

Why? Because there is no one else to do it.

Everyone loves writing dialogue in their screenplay. It's the fun part.

Yet the action lines create the most friction with the reader, and 99% of early screenwriters don't spend the time to get them right.

Here is a part of my rewriting process for action lines. 🧵👇 First, big picture. My goal for every screenplay is to evoke the emotional experience of watching the movie on screen.

I do not want them to feel they're reading a document.

I want the reader to visualize the movie and react emotionally to what they're reading.

Early in my screenwriting career, I was insecure, hungover, and a pain to work with.

I sobered up & wanted to change my reputation, but didn't know how. Then Craig Mazin gave a talk at the WGA on thriving in development.

These are 5 takeaways that helped change how I worked. 1) Treat everyone in development as your ally. They may have different views, opinions, etc., but you all have the same goal: to make a movie.

Most people do not know how to develop material. They are nervous.

Position yourself as the rock of stability in the room.

I finally watched COCAINE BEAR and it reminded of something I have been talking about in my classes on how screenwriters who write original movies can work around Hollywood’s obsession with pre-existing I.P. #screenwriting 🧵 The first thing to understand is that Hollywood has not run out of new ideas. The studio’s preference for I.P. has nothing to do with regurgitating ideas and everything to do with MARKETING.

I cover the whole subject in this tweet here:

https://twitter.com/173151162/status/1655274210191630336

With #WGAStrong rightfully in the spotlight this week, I've seen some less-than-sympathetic comments focusing on the lack of originality in our projects.

This is a fair criticism of the system, but not the writers. A quick history of how we got here: 🧵 The first thing to understand is that Hollywood has NOT run out of new ideas. The studio’s preference for I.P. has nothing to do with regurgitating ideas and everything to do with MARKETING.

I spent the first half of my career resisting loglines. I hated them and wrote them AFTER I finished a screenplay. This was dumb and my career suffered. I finally embraced them, and it’s made a huge difference. This is what I learned over this time, #screenwriting 🧵 First, let's talk about two big mistakes I think people make and then what I think is necessary for a good logline.