Landing a staff writing gig on a TV show is pretty much every aspiring screenwriter’s dream. However, what exactly goes on in a writers’ room remains a mystery for those starting their careers. How long are the hours? Who writes which episode and why? When do you eat lunch ..read more

The latest version of the world’s #1 screenwriting program, Final Draft 13, has been updated to meet the ever-changing needs of screenwriters. With the upgrade are several new features like Writing Goals and Productivity Stats, Emoji support, Typewriter view, Navigator 2.0, Structure Lines, Character Development Tools, and improvements to many of the program's time-tested features ..read more

Any comedic writer will tell you there’s nothing more satisfying than a well-placed joke. That’s probably because writing comedy isn’t easy. Just like any other screenplay, a comedic screenplay has to have a well-developed story and three-dimensional characters while making audiences laugh. You have to be funny while trying not to be funny while remaining true to the situation at hand and the character’s personality. This is no easy feat.  ..read more

Getting into a room to pitch your ideas for a new series is the dream for screenwriters. These meetings are a big part of selling scripts, landing writing assignments, or breaking into writers' rooms in Hollywood, but getting into the room can seem impossible ..read more

Suspension of disbelief is when someone takes a fictional narrative and ignores certain aspects that are unrealistic or implausible. English poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge is often attributed with introducing the concept of "suspension of disbelief" in his 1817 work Biographia Literaria. However, this notion was acknowledged by earlier Greek writers such as Aristotle ..read more

“We had to go back to the ratings board five times. It was a long journey. You have to laugh sometimes because we had some really grotesque imagery in our film. We even have a demon phallus in the film and nobody was worried about that. It was really the image of the vagina that was getting us that rating,” says Arkasha Stevenson, director, and co-screenwriter for The First Omen, about initially getting an NC17 rating from the Motion Picture Association. After much back and forth, the film is now rated R.  The First Omen was written by Tim Smith and Arkasha Stevenson with Stevenson als ..read more

In my article "Big Story, Small Budget," I wrote about how you should be mindful of production costs when deciding what to write because it’s a major factor in why scripts get bought and produced. Generally speaking, the more cost-effective the project, the more desirable it’ll be to producers and studios.  ..read more

While both short stories and novels share the goal of engaging the reader in dynamic, thought-provoking storytelling, there are several significant differences between the two forms ..read more

Your protagonist is the main character of your feature screenplay or television pilot ..read more

Screenwriting competitions can take your screenwriting career to the next level, just ask Big Break grand prize winner Alix Reeves for her screenplay, QUEENPINS ..read more