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How Intercut Can Help Tell Your Story In Just 8 pictures

All About Intercut Whether you’re writing a screenplay or a novel, intercut can help you tell your story. An intercut is a storytelling technique used to rapidly switch back and forth between two different locations. This might be during a phone call, text message conversation, or parallel action. An intercut frequently plays around with the sense of time in your story, too. They may reference something that has happened in the past. However, intercuts can also reference to the future, to different versions of ‘now’ (whatever that means), or even thoughts and feelings. When Intercuts Go Wrong While intercuts are… Read More »How Intercut Can Help Tell Your Story In Just 8 pictures

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Boy Meets Girl: How To Write Romance That Impacts Your Reader

All About Boy Meets Girl ‘Boy Meets Girl’ is a plotting archetype that underpins probably 90% of romance stories. Across all subgenres and cross-genres of romance, we can see it in action because that’s what our readers and viewers WANT. I thought I would trace this powerful archetype and what makes it hit so hard. Ready? Let’s go … ‘Boy Meets Girl’, Beat for Beat 1)  The Set Up Like all stories across all mediums and genres, this archetype begins with the set up. We join the protagonist in their normal life and understand what missing there on an emotional… Read More »Boy Meets Girl: How To Write Romance That Impacts Your Reader

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Inside The Spec Pile: Novel No-Nos To Avoid In Your First 3 Chapters

Novel No-Nos To Avoid The first three chapters are the main event when it comes to your novel submissions. (Want to know what else you should submit with your first three chapters? CLICK HERE). Yet as any script reader, sifter, intern or agent’s assistant can tell you, the average first three chapters simply don’t hit the mark. These ‘novel no-nos’ can be varied, so I’m going to list the most common here with links to help. Ready? Then let’s go … 1) Starting with the weather Uh oh! This is one of classic author Elmore Leonard’s Top 10 Writing Rules. Remember:… Read More »Inside The Spec Pile: Novel No-Nos To Avoid In Your First 3 Chapters

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The Curse of Plot Armour: Why Some Characters Can’t Die (and Why It Matters)

What Is Plot Armour? Plot armour is when a character cannot die in a story, no matter what happens to them. It’s … The smooth-talking hero who survives falling off skyscrapers, cliffs, out of planes without a parachute Villains who appear to be dead, yet inexplicably come back to life Kickass hotties who can stop bullets hitting them by being super-fast Characters with supernatural or scientific abilities that stop them dying (including superheroes) Hitmen who have a ‘bulletproof suit’  (hello, literal plot armour in John Wick 4!) Plot armour is most obvious in horror, fantasy or science fiction, though it… Read More »The Curse of Plot Armour: Why Some Characters Can’t Die (and Why It Matters)

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10 Quick Tips To Self-Edit Your Screenplay Or Novel

How To Self-Edit Your Screenplay Or Novel I’m a big believer in the self-edit for my drafts. I don’t see the point in sending my novels or screenplays out – even just to peer reviewers – without giving my writing a good polish first. I also recommend Bang2writers self-edit before paying for feedback, too! However, I’ve worked with writers now for over twenty years. I’ve noticed that many writers don’t know what an effective self-edit entails. They’ll tend to hyper-focus on itty-bitty things that don’t matter. Then they’ll move words around the page randomly. Waaaah. So, if you’re keen to… Read More »10 Quick Tips To Self-Edit Your Screenplay Or Novel

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“I Like Your Style!” Top 10 Writing Tips To Improve Yours

Your Writing Style Is Important Writing style is unique, but there are things we can consider in making our style the best it can be. As Lucy always says on this site, good writing craft is the least we can do. Style is part of that. Of course, there are no rules. Experienced writers can get away with anything. However, below are some things to be aware of, especially if you are writing a book or short story for the first time. “Writing fiction is a delicate balance.” Sol Stein from Stein On Writing 1)  Avoid The Passive Voice The… Read More »“I Like Your Style!” Top 10 Writing Tips To Improve Yours

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The #1 Question Writers Need To Ask Of Their Writing (Do It!!)

The Question You Need To Ask So a couple of weeks ago, I published an article, Top 5 Mistakes Writers Make On Their Page 1 Of Their Screenplays. In the article I gave two examples of (fake) screenplays that had issues. I also posted these script examples to the B2W social media, asking the Bang2writers ‘What’s wrong with THIS page 1?’ (below). Here’s what the Bangers said … ‘Not enough details about Katie – is she the protagonist? If so, what is she wearing? What music is she listening to?’ ‘Missing character descriptions’ ‘It says INT when it should be… Read More »The #1 Question Writers Need To Ask Of Their Writing (Do It!!)

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Why Your Draft Doesn’t Make Sense (Plus What To Do About It)

So, Your Draft Doesn’t Make Sense It’s the note every writer – new to professional – dreads: your draft doesn’t make sense. Eeek! When your draft doesn’t make sense, it can be very overwhelming. When we get the note our stories are hard to follow, it’s easy to sink into hopelessness and despair. Some of us may even take it as proof we’re ‘terrible writers’ too and spiral even more. Perhaps you’re confused, too? Maybe you don’t understand why your script editor, beta reader or peer reviewer finds your story so hard to follow. You may feel as if the… Read More »Why Your Draft Doesn’t Make Sense (Plus What To Do About It)

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1 Killer Screenwriting Trick From Walter Hill (ALIEN)

About Walter Hill Walter Hill is a director, screenwriter and producer with a super-shiny resumé. He is the writer-director of the classic gang warfare movie The Warriors, an adaptation of the novel by Sol Yurick. Known primarily for the action genre, Hill has worked with all kinds of Hollywood royalty such as Arnold Schwarzenegger (Red Heat); Eddie Murphy (48 Hours and Another 48 Hours); Sylvester Stallone and Jason Momoa (Bullet to The Head); and even Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah (Hardboiled crime author Jim Thompson’s The Getaway). But even with all that in mind, Hill is perhaps most famous for producing… Read More »1 Killer Screenwriting Trick From Walter Hill (ALIEN)

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT: 10 Screenwriting Commandments From William Goldman

About William Goldman William Goldman was a novelist and screenwriter. If you’ve never heard of him, then where have you been?? His contribution to the creative arts is phenomenal. He was also a huge influence on B2W!! Goldman’s works include his thriller novel Marathon Man and his cult classic comedy/fantasy novel The Princess Bride, both of which he also adapted for the film versions. Goldman also won Oscars for his screenplays Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and All the President’s Men (1976). He also did a brilliant job of illuminating the process for writers in his non fiction books… Read More »IN THE SPOTLIGHT: 10 Screenwriting Commandments From William Goldman

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Top 5 Mistakes Writers Make Writing Scenes

All About Writing Scenes In my new book, The Craft of Scene Writing: Beat by Beat to a Better Script, I complement the overwhelming amount of material on story and structure for screenwriters by focusing on craft. In fact, avoid these common 5 Scene Mistakes and improve your script today! 1) Scenes That Ignore The Story’s Concept A scene that doesn’t link its surprise to the concept is a non-sequitur. It’s generic. Avoid scenes that could work in other films. Dance with the one that brought you: your concept. Stay true to it and reap many rewards. The main conceit… Read More »Top 5 Mistakes Writers Make Writing Scenes

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Why FRIENDS Has An Awesome Pilot (And What It Can Teach Writers)

Rise of the Spec TV Pilot Every screenwriter alive wants to write a great pilot episode of their own, if the spec pile is anything go by. When I started B2W back in the day, I hardly ever saw spec TV pilot episodes of any kind. Fast-forward fifteen years and I would venture I read more spec TV pilot episodes than anything else! It also means THE most popular article on this entire site is How To Write TV Series Bibles – over 130K+ unique hits now. Wow! That said, spec TV pilot episodes are notoriously difficult to write. Whilst… Read More »Why FRIENDS Has An Awesome Pilot (And What It Can Teach Writers)

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