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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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5 Top Tips For Writing Romantasy That Bites Back

How To Write Romantasy That Bites Back I was at London Screenwriters Festival this weekend just past, where I did a masterclass on writing romantasy. This subgenre has exploded in the past three or four years across all media, yet many people get it wrong on why it’s so popular. Romantasy is NOT just fantasy with some kissing. The romance angle powers the story, while giving us brutal worlds, high stakes and love that complicates everything. It is all about danger and desire, fused. Ultimately, good romantasy is all about that core promise: if it doesn’t hurt, it’s not romantasy.… Read More »5 Top Tips For Writing Romantasy That Bites Back

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What Are YOUR Writing Influences? Here’s 14 Of Mine

All About Influences We are not creating stories in a vacuum, so we all have writing influences. I also often say writers need to research ‘what’s gone before’ when it comes to … concept genre conventions character tropes plotting archetypes tones styles storyworlds Since B2W needs to practice what it preaches, I sit down at the beginning of EVERY project and do this too. The Coven Is Out Now Since The Coven is released NOW, I thought I would share 14 books, TV shows and movies that influenced me as I was writing. Some of these influences may be a… Read More »What Are YOUR Writing Influences? Here’s 14 Of Mine

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10 Quick Tips About Writing Horror

All About Writing Horror Loads of you Bang2writers are writing Horror, all year round. So when BAFTA-nommed Stephen Volk suggested a post on this subject, I jumped at the chance. Don’t forget to check out his book, too. Enjoy! 1) Get Your Brain Out of the Way Thinking doesn’t create monsters. Your unconscious does. Don’t think about recent movie hits. Don’t think of old movie legends. In fact, don’t think of anything. Cultivate a dream-time, a coffee-scape. Think of the worst that can happen. Don’t self-censor before you even dream. Go there and return with ideas. And trust them. 2) It’s All About… Read More »10 Quick Tips About Writing Horror

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How to Write Bloodcurdling Horror: Your Halloween Starter Kit

Happy Halloween! Halloween is always a great time to start thinking about writing a Horror screenplay, novel or short story. It’s a date on the calendar that never changes, plus Horror is always in demand around this time. So Halloween can act as a brilliant motivator for writing that Horror piece you’ve always meant to … Plus you can use the same date **next year** as your deadline. Perfect! So, without further ado, here’s a starter kit on all things Horror to get you going. Gooooooooood luck! 1) Learn From The Classics (AND The Clangers)! If you want to write… Read More »How to Write Bloodcurdling Horror: Your Halloween Starter Kit

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Top 5 Mistakes Writers Make With Low Budget Horror

Low budget horror has been all the rage for YEARS now. But don’t take my word for it  — I’ve drafted in an expert, Samantha Horley, an ex sales agent. Sam used to work at such companies as Salt and Summit Entertainment, so really knows her onions – she even helped make the commercial success that was The Blair Witch Project. Over to you, Sam! Low Budget Mistakes I get approached regularly by investors, sales companies and distributors, directors and producers, looking for low budget horror films. Some of them even  have that rare beast – the cash to fully… Read More »Top 5 Mistakes Writers Make With Low Budget Horror

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6 Things I Learned From Debbie Moon, Showrunner on WOLFBLOOD

The new year might seem like old news now, but there’s still a whole load of brand new writing opportunities for us to check out … Whether you’re planning on submitting your spec to an agent, or entering a few competitions –buckle up, read on and make some notes! Today, we’re lucky enough to have screenwriter and showrrunner Debbie Moon share her top 4 tips on how YOU can create a spec script that will stand out in any submission pile. Debbie is a television writer AND author, but she is also known as the creator and show-runner of the hit… Read More »6 Things I Learned From Debbie Moon, Showrunner on WOLFBLOOD

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How WONDER WOMAN Proves The Power Of Untold Stories

No Real Spoilers So the news and reviews and first weekend figures are in: Wonder Woman is an epic box office SMASH! This is great news not only for female lead characters, but female directors as well. Patty Jenkins has done a HUGE turn to female filmmakers everywhere. Whilst it’s obviously completely and utterly wrong that ONE film had so much to prove like this, that’s a conversation for another time. For now, I for one am delighted that Jenkins et al has pulled this off, against the odds. BRAVO! So now I’m going to take a look at the… Read More »How WONDER WOMAN Proves The Power Of Untold Stories

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Adaptation Showdown: which is better, the book or the film?

Did You Know …? If you’ve been hiding under a rock or been away in outer space, you may have missed that last year I launched my own author site for my novel writing at www.lucyvhayauthor.com! I decided to combine my love of movies AND books and create a ‘Book Versus Film’ feature over there … So far we’ve had some BRILLIANT case studies and some surprising conclusions, written by moi and some other excellent contributors. If you want to read them, CLICK HERE. Don’t forget to follow me as @LucyVHayAuthor on Twitter for interviews with crime writers, reading recommendations… Read More »Adaptation Showdown: which is better, the book or the film?

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Top 5 Diversity Mistakes Writers Make

Writing diverse characters isn’t just trendy, it’s becoming more and more necessary if you want your scripts to get read and commissioned. Nothing wrong with  heterosexual cisgendered white men – my very longterm partner is one and he’s just the best! – but there are a lot of other exciting stories to tell, and a lot of other compelling types of characters to create. The good news is, more and more writers are including more inclusivity in their scripts; the bad news is since this is new territory for many, there are a lot of common mistakes writers make that… Read More »Top 5 Diversity Mistakes Writers Make

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3 Things You Need To Know About Plot Holes

Whenever *anyone* discusses a movie or TV show online, it’s not long before someone in the thread laments apparent ‘plot holes’ in the narrative. But what IS a plot hole? This definition, from Wikipedia, is actually pretty good: In fiction, a plot hole, plothole or plot error is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story’s plot. Such inconsistencies include such things as illogical or impossible events, and statements or events that contradict earlier events in the storyline. This, from Urban Dictionary  is NOT good: Here’s what you need to… Read More »3 Things You Need To Know About Plot Holes

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Top 10 Words Or Phrases Storytellers Gave Us

Inventing Words Shakespeare was The Don when it came to inventing words and phrases, so we tend to think writers and filmmakers contribute to language a lot more than they do. It’s actually rather unusual for a writer or filmmaker’s words to get assimilated wholesale by popular culture, but here’s my top 10. Enjoy! 1) You do not talk about … An easy one to start. FIGHT CLUB (1999) is an iconic book and film, so whenever anyone says the phrase, “You do not talk about [whatever]” they’re usually invoking this particular scene from the movie. Over the last two… Read More »Top 10 Words Or Phrases Storytellers Gave Us

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