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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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Why Most Spec Scripts Fail (It’s Not The Idea – It’s The Execution)

It’s All In The Execution? Most scripts don’t fail because the idea is bad – they fail because the execution is not doing the work. But how can we tell if our execution is not cutting it? Here’s 8 common pitfalls I see regularly in spec screenplays. Ready? Let’s go … 1) A situation is not a story A cool idea or set-up isn’t enough. Your concept at the heart of your story needs to be road-tested at foundation level. A story = movement. This means your story requires escalation, cause & effect, and a protagonist driving towards a clear… Read More »Why Most Spec Scripts Fail (It’s Not The Idea – It’s The Execution)

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Self-Editing Your Draft: From “WTAF?” to “Hell Yes, I Wrote That!”

All About Self-Editing Your Draft Whether you’re writing a novel or a screenplay, self-editing is key. Yet many writers don’t realise self-editing is even a thing! They may get in contact with a script editor like me to tell them what to do. Yet as I always say on this blog and the B2W social media, self-editing is a great idea. Doing this first is always going to get you better, more robust results than going straight to paid-for feedback-givers like B2W. It’s also A LOT cheaper! But how, exactly, do writers self-edit? Here’s my checklist, step by step. Ready?… Read More »Self-Editing Your Draft: From “WTAF?” to “Hell Yes, I Wrote That!”

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Stuck On Act 2? 5 Tips To Take Your Story Towards A Great Ending

The Dreaded Act 2 ‘Slump’ Screenwriter or author, many – if not most? – writers fear Act 2. Lots of Bang2writers I’ve worked one-to-one with label it ‘The Wasteland’! It’s not hard to see why. While Act 1 is full of promise, plus Act 3 is the ‘wrap up’, so it’s easy (and normal!) to stall in Act 2. Many writers stall because they’re not entirely sure what Act 2 is for. So, breaking it down, Act 2 is for … Escalation of the conflict (with characters ‘climbing walls, each one bigger than the last‘) Development of character arcs, so… Read More »Stuck On Act 2? 5 Tips To Take Your Story Towards A Great Ending

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How Great Visual Writing Works In Your Screenplay Or Novel

You’ve Heard It All Before: ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ Whether you’re writing a screenplay or a novel, visual storytelling is your secret weapon. Why? Because readers and viewers don’t connect with lists of facts. They connect with images, action and emotion. But how do we write these three things? Well, I’m putting them under the microscope in this blog post with 5 top tips to concentrate on. Ready? Let’s go! Let’s explore how to write visually and bring your scenes – and your characters – to life. 1) Think: Scene Description = Scene Action In screenplays, scene description *is* what we… Read More »How Great Visual Writing Works In Your Screenplay Or Novel

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How To Write A Great Story Arc For Your Character (With Examples)

A Great Story Arc Needs Conflict Every great story has a beginning, middle, and end, also known as a story arc. In order to keep your audience engaged, your story should have a clear story arc with a conflict that is resolved by the end. Le duh! But what is a story arc? As you may guess, it’s the narrative structure of a story. How that story arc works will depend on the story being told. Characters may deal with problems – aka conflict – in order to make changes in their lives or important realisations. The most common of these… Read More »How To Write A Great Story Arc For Your Character (With Examples)

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10 Simple Steps For Revising Your Draft

So, You’ve Finished Your Draft! Congratulations, but you still have work to do: revising it!! But where to start?? If you are feeling overwhelmed, then check out these 10 revision pointers for novels or screenplays. They can act as a handy checklist for revising your draft. Good luck … 1) Wait! First up, do NOTHING. That’s right … Just let that novel sit in a drawer or on your computer’s desktop. Do absolutely zilch with it, for a couple of days (minimum) or weeks (preferred) or months (maximum). Let your subconscious bubble away, revising any of your story’s problems as… Read More »10 Simple Steps For Revising Your Draft

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3 Absurd Screenwriting Myths To Forget Right Now

Writing Myths Myths are everywhere in screenwriting, but it’s real success that attracts you. First, you watch GET OUT. Then, you watch the Academy Awards 2018 to see GET OUT winning its Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. And you think: ” I’ll become the next big shot Hollywood screenwriter! After all, I write screenplays, don’t I?” Yes, you do. You know all the screenwriting techniques; you understand that a stellar script is the result of hard work; plus you’ve read all the books like Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! and you know a hero’s journey inside out. And yet, your Oscar… Read More »3 Absurd Screenwriting Myths To Forget Right Now

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How IT Demonstrates The Enlightening Power Of Subtext

WARNING: Spoilers In my occasional Movie Lessons For Writers series, I put a recent or classic movie under the microscope and draw attention to what writers can learn, for good or ill. Since IT has been lighting up screens all over the world – surpassing the hallowed £500m mark, no less! – then whether we loved or hated it (or loved TO hate it), we can agree this remake has *something* to impart. What’s Working Obviously, plenty is. Rightly or wrongly, movies this popular will always have their detractors, but overall we can discern that the filmmakers definitely got something… Read More »How IT Demonstrates The Enlightening Power Of Subtext

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1 Wrong Belief That Is Destroying Your Scene Description

NEWSFLASH: ‘Description’ is the wrong word! One wrong belief many screenwriters have is  that ‘description’ is really the wrong word when it comes to those pesky prose bits of our screenplays. This wrong belief that we have to DESCRIBE everything in a scene is literally holding us back! It ends up making us do these script killers …  ‘Set dressing’ when it comes to things physically in it that have no bearing on story (yawn!) ‘False movement’ aka a list of moving body parts (especially shrugging, raised eyebrows and other fillers) Pointless and extraneous details like what characters are wearing… Read More »1 Wrong Belief That Is Destroying Your Scene Description

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How To Write A Screenplay Bomb: Transformers The Last Knight

Look, I’m pretty easily pleased … As long as there’s some explosions, some robots kicking the shit out of one another, some running, some comedy, a bloke with his shirt off and a budget Angelina Jolie slinking about the joint, then it’s usually a thumbs up from me. But then I watched Transformers: The Last Knight at the weekend. It actually had ALL of the above – okay Marky Mark didn’t get his shirt all the way off (boo!) – but near enough. (Please note: before you judge me, I had some Tesco Odeon vouchers that needed using up. Okay??). And… Read More »How To Write A Screenplay Bomb: Transformers The Last Knight

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Top 5 Screenwriting Mistakes Writers Make

Screenwriting shouldn’t be that hard. You have a story, and you turn it into a script. You just have to follow a precise format that’s easy to read. Unfortunately, it’s a bit more complex than that! The script has to paint a picture for the reader. If you want to get it on the desks of producers, directors, actors, and all other important people in the process of making a movie, you have to make things right. Everything starts by critiquing your own work. No matter how good you are, you’ll still notice mistakes when you’re careful enough!  We’ll list… Read More »Top 5 Screenwriting Mistakes Writers Make

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