How to Write a Screenplay

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A child feeling sand for the first time is one of the images we understand to be evocative of sensory details.

How to Use Sensory Details in Your Story

Your goal as a writer is to immerse your readers fully in your story, to help them experience what it...

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...

What makes a good story is suggested by a fourth piece of four quadrants slotting neatly into a missing gap — suggesting that the key to a good story comes from the hand of the writer.

What Makes a Good Story? The Four Elements

This is a question that can often lead writers down the wrong path. Many try to answer this through the...

A writer is trying to rewrite a simple thing on a notepad with crumpled pieces of paper all around. Beauty and lightness are evoked in the frame, suggesting this as a necessary process.

The Rewrite

Once you’ve completed an editing checklist on your manuscript, you may find that your story requires a more substantial rewrite. ...

A woman whose style of singing sets her apart from the crowd is a simple and effective metaphor for how to visualize the ways to describe a voice for characters to be distinguished from one another easily

Ways to Describe a Voice

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called the human voice “the organ of the soul.” Writers must become skilled organists to differentiate and...

Image of the caucasus mountains used to visualize the 10,000 hour rule and how it can be applied to you, above in the background are high mountain peaks certainly worth climbing but in the foreground is a lake that suggests a serenity and calm in the achievement of joy

10,000 Hour Rule on Mastering Skills

“It takes 10,000 hours to truly master anything. Time spent leads to experience; experience leads to proficiency; and the more...

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.

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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.

Read More »
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

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...

What is My Screenplay About?

What is My Screenplay About?

When we think of our favorite movies, there is invariably an element that is so novel, so surprising, that it...

A Screenplay is a Blueprint

A Screenplay is a Blueprint

A screenplay is the blueprint from which directors take their cues. It is not the screenwriter’s job to provide camera...

intro to the 90-day screenplay (FREE)

Join me now to begin the process of getting the story from your imagination to the page, and complete the...