How to Write a Screenplay

Most popular posts

Character Bio Template: Creating Dynamic Characters

A dynamic character bio template helps you understand how that character supports the story you are telling. It’s not just...

Two people playing chess to suggest personality strengths and weaknesses

How to Build Personality Strengths and Weaknesses in Your Characters

If you ask a writer to identify their character’s personality strengths and weaknesses, most of them will come up with...

Teenagers running across an open road to suggest how young adult fiction can be empowering and light

Young Adult Fiction

What determines a book’s placement in young adult fiction vs adult fiction? It’s not simply based on the reader’s age....

A lilting flower petal in a book to suggest how bad character traits are beautiful

Bad Character Traits Make for Compelling Stories

Character traits are expressions of a person’s personality and determine their behavior. They influence how your characters function in a...

Death to Stock - A woman next to a child by a curtain, suggesting a kind of play in reinventing fantasy tropes

Fantasy Tropes: How to Reinvent Familiar Stories

Fantasy tropes have a reputation problem in some crowds. Say the words “chosen one” or “Dark Lord” to a room...

A picture of towering skyscrapers suggest the metaphor of success offered by good self-publishing companies

A Guide to the Best Self-Publishing Companies

If you’ve started searching for the best self-publishing companies, you’ve probably noticed something interesting. Every platform promises something different. One...

A woman directs a cameraman with a screenplay in hand to suggest that a writer can shine in a different format — What is a screenplay?
Blog
Alan Watt

What is a Screenplay?

A screenplay is a script specifically written for film, TV, video games, or any other visual medium. It is not just the

Read More »
A hand rearranging scenes visually depicts how to outline a screenplay
Blog
Alan Watt

How to Outline a Screenplay

Some screenwriters resist outlining. They prefer to follow the story wherever it leads, trusting their instincts over structure, discovery over design. And

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A picture of a very small man atop a film camera for the featured image of the blog what is a short film
Blog
Alan Watt

What is a Short Film?

Every screenwriter dreams to one day have their own feature length film on the big screen. Regardless of how grand that goal

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A trail between many hills and a lone runner, the solitude in the journey of writing mirrored by the solace that screenplay structure--presented as a trail--provides
Blog
Alan Watt

Screenplay Structure

Screenplay structure allows a writer to investigate their characters and theme and get to the heart of where they exist in story.

Read More »
Blog
Alan Watt

How to Sell Your Screenplay

Selling your screenplay is a battle of outreach, portfolio, and simplicity. Learn how to balance your professional expectations with the heart of your work.

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Typewriter with some cameras around, how to write a logline for the collaborative medium
Blog
Alan Watt

How to Write a Logline

A logline is the first chance your screenplay gets to make an impression. After months of outlining, writing the rough draft, and

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Recent posts

A woman in a bookshop look at novels with a camera beside her as a visual parallel for how to adapt a book into a screenplay

How to Adapt a Book Into a Screenplay

Months, maybe even years, have been invested in crafting your novel or memoir, and now you have decided to adapt...

Women wearing stylish hats in a New York City exterior street, one in partial shadow to suggest a mystique and a thrill to avoiding wearing too many hats as a screenwriter

Wearing Too Many Hats: Understanding the Screenwriter’s Role

When writing a screenplay, there often comes a point where you start to imagine you’re in charge of the entire...

A man solemnly wears a lot of many hats that he needs to sell — is this what you want your writing to represent?

“Too Many Hats” — Why Your Screenplay Loses Focus

“Too many hats” is one of the most common traps a screenwriter can fall into, and it almost always begins...

A woman directs a cameraman with a screenplay in hand to suggest that a writer can shine in a different format — What is a screenplay?

What is a Screenplay?

A screenplay is a script specifically written for film, TV, video games, or any other visual medium. It is not...

A hand rearranging scenes visually depicts how to outline a screenplay

How to Outline a Screenplay

Some screenwriters resist outlining. They prefer to follow the story wherever it leads, trusting their instincts over structure, discovery over...

A picture of a very small man atop a film camera for the featured image of the blog what is a short film

What is a Short Film?

Every screenwriter dreams to one day have their own feature length film on the big screen. Regardless of how grand...

An evocative image that suggests to the writer reading this blog that good screenwriting classes should evoke a sense of childlike learning joys.

Screenwriting Classes: What to Look for

Whether you are new to the craft of screenwriting, or perhaps stuck somewhere in the middle of your manuscript, the...

Deciding the question of "how long should a screenplay should be?" is a process of measurement against the demands of an audience, your work, and yourself that is much akin to the physical process of measuring something with a tape measure a few times over.

How Long Should a Screenplay Be?

Screenplays usually land around 90 to 120 pages. And the reason involves both technical considerations and the practical realities of...

See how to write flashbacks in screenplay as a relation to a lack of stricture on temporality. A table at the end of a hallway with many doors that lead into other rooms as a visual metaphor for how flashback functions inside a screenplay and how to write a flashback in screenplay, specifically handling the temporal relation between image and page.

How to Write Flashbacks in a Screenplay

Flashbacks act as a sort of Swiss army knife. You can use them in multiple ways — to foreshadow coming...

How to introduce a character: sometimes the introduction is the character themselves asking to be invited in, and the audience will decide for you who they are. These characters can come from anywhere, and be anyone you need them to.

How to Introduce a Character in a Screenplay

How to Introduce a Character in a Screenplay: Master the art of first impressions with proper formatting, action cues, and...
A photography montage to demonstrate the parallel to creating a montage in the visual medium of a screenplay.

How to Write a Montage in a Screenplay

Learn how to write a montage in a screenplay to condense time and show character growth. Master the format and...
A trail between many hills and a lone runner, the solitude in the journey of writing mirrored by the solace that screenplay structure--presented as a trail--provides

Screenplay Structure

Screenplay structure allows a writer to investigate their characters and theme and get to the heart of where they exist...

How to Sell Your Screenplay

Selling your screenplay is a battle of outreach, portfolio, and simplicity. Learn how to balance your professional expectations with the...
Typewriter with some cameras around, how to write a logline for the collaborative medium

How to Write a Logline

A logline is the first chance your screenplay gets to make an impression. After months of outlining, writing the rough...

save the cat

“Save the Cat” Story Structure: A Screenwriter’s Practical Guide

One structure model designed specifically for screenwriters is Blake Snyder’s “Save the Cat!”  If you’ve been in one of my...

script format - camera operator with two actors

Script Format 101: Writing for the Screen and Stage

In a previous article, I went over formatting requirements for screenplays. These techniques can also help set up a sound...

screenplay format

Screenplay Format Made Simple: Tips & Essentials

Getting your screenplay format down right matters more than you might think. You could write the most brilliant story ever...

storyline

Storyline: Marrying Plot to Theme

Every screenplay is built around a single invisible force that holds everything together. You may not notice it on first...