How working with eleven writers from Europe and the Middle East inspired me… and drove home some writing truths. From April 22–26, I was a guest of The Write Retreat in Mallorca, Spain. During that time I worked with each writer or writing duo on their creative projects. It was…

A week-long analysis of the 2021 drama starring Ben Affleck and directed by George Clooney. Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Plot Wednesday…

This 7-minute video analyzes Sorkin’s dialogue in the opening scene of The Social Network and reveals an interesting dynamic in his writing: Rhythm. Recently, this Insider video from 2022 traversed my social media timeline. It’s a really good watch. It goes into great detail analyzing the opening scene in The…

Go Into The Story followers are contributing breakdowns of contemporary screenplays to an ongoing script analysis series. On May 16, 2022, Go Into The Story turns 14 years old — you can read the very first blog post here. I led with this paragraph: Welcome to Go Into The Story…

The simplest way to imbue a story with a strong, central conflict is to have your Protagonist confront a Nemesis. Your choice of a Protagonist is easily one of the most critical decisions you make because of the character’s dominant influence on a story: The Protagonist usually goes on some…

How budget issues helped to create the memorable ice rink scene. A while back, I was talking with a friend Kevin Wild and asked him for a Great Scene suggestion. He said, “Hey, you should do some that came about because of budget issues.” And he immediately thought of the…