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Practical Screenwriting
Copyright © 2020 Practical Screenwriting LLC
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ISBN 978-1-64826-150-3
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First Edition
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Section One: Reframing Your View of Writing
Chapter One: What’s the Point of Writing?
Chapter Two: The Biggest Mistakes Screenwriters Make
Chapter Three: The Importance of Finishing
Section Two: A Better Way to Look at Story
Chapter Four: A Better Way to Look at Story
Chapter Five: The Amateur Fear of Rules and Principles
Section Three: Developing Your New Writing
Process
Chapter Six: Reframing Your View of the Writing
Process
Section Four: Common Script Mistakes
Chapter Seven: Common Script Mistakes
Review
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Introduction
Hello, my name is Tyler Mowery. If you’re reading this
it’s probably because you’ve seen my videos on Youtube
talking about storytelling and screenwriting. Maybe
you’ve read books on screenwriting before. Maybe
you’ve sat in a film school classroom or gone through a
story workshop or a screenwriting course.
And I want to take the time right now to tell you that
this book will be different from other screenwriting
books you’ve read in the past. You aren’t going to find
me simply repeating information you’ve heard again and
again.
This book is NOT a guide to the fundamentals of
storytelling. I will NOT be covering the basics of
structure, characters, conflict, etc. If you’re looking for
resources on that, I recommend heading over to my
Youtube channel: Y outube.com/TylerMowery.
This book is about the EXTREMELY important
elements of writing that no one bothered to tell me
when I was starting. Ideas that, if I’d known, would’ve
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dramatically improved my writing, my daily writing
process, and my mindset.
This book is more than just some motivational content.
And it’s more than just a few interesting story tactics.
This book is my philosophy on writing and the writing
process.
We all know that great writing is more than just
knowing story theory. But what is it that actually makes
a great writer? Can we actually find the answer?
I believe we can.
I want this book to arm you with a new outlook on
writing. By the time you finish, I want you to see stories
in a new way. I want you to see the writing process in a
new way. And I want you to see yourself and your
purpose as a writer in a new way.
Let’s begin.
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SECTION ONE:
Reframing Your View of
Writing
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CHAPTER ONE
What’s the Point of
Writing?
It’s a big question, but it’s likely one that you haven’t
really answered yet. You write because you like telling
stories. You like building worlds and dropping
characters inside them. You like when you get to share
your world with others. These are all good things!
When I was about ten years old I was reading three to
four books a week. Many of them were these dense
600-page teen fiction novels. I would walk around the
fiction section of my local library and would pick out a
book with a cool cover and interesting title. Then I
would take it home and finish it within a few days.
My parents were (thankfully) very restrictive on how
much time I could spend watching tv or playing video
games. And there was also one year where my family
moved into a smaller home in a much older
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neighborhood. Suddenly there were no more kids to play
with. So I read and read and read.
Stories completely captivated me. I was being
transported to different worlds. I was meeting new
friends and watching them struggle through challenges
and succeed.
Then I started writing my own stories. I would fill up
my notebook with these fantasy stories of dwarves and
elves going on action packed adventures, of space
soldiers fighting sci-fi wars, and of kids figuring out
town mysteries.
They were all terrible, but I loved them. I loved
imagining my own world where I had control and all of
the rules were set by me. I didn’t write these stories
because of some deep philosophical reason. I didn’t
write them because I was on some sort of quest for
meaning. I wrote them simply because I loved stories.
And this is a great place to start. When I was young it
wasn’t about being a good writer, it was about
cultivating that initial love of writing.
But now as someone who is serious about writing, I have
more to think about. When a certain book sucked me in
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for days, there were unseen mechanisms working behind
the scenes that were pulling me in for hours and hours.
“When I was young it wasn’t about
being a good writer, it was about
cultivating that initial love of writing.”
What was it? What was actually keeping me engaged in
these stories without even realizing it? What keeps us all
engaged in any story? More importantly, why do stories
exist at all? Why is it that across every single culture
throughout all of history, we have told each other
stories? Why are stories so fundamentally ingrained in
who we are as human beings?
The first thought is that stories are a way for us to
entertain each other. They survive through history
because we enjoy telling and hearing them. The second
thought is that stories evoke emotion. They create
excitement, fear, sadness, and happiness as we learn
about characters in stories.
But both of these ideas are too weak. While they are our
first thoughts, they are not the true purpose of stories.
When I was sitting in my room ingesting book after
book at a young age, there was something deeper going
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on. Something I couldn’t see on the surface. But it was
the reason I wanted a new story again and again.
I was watching characters struggle and make decisions.
Every time a character had to make a choice, it meant
something. The characters believed in something. They
believed that what they were doing was important. They
believed it was worth the sacrifices they had to make to
keep going.
The stories were showing me a way to live. When Frodo
and Sam took the ring to Mordor in The Lord of the
Rings, they did it because they believed what they were
doing was important. When Simba overthrew Scar in
The Lion King, he did it because he believed he had a
destiny and a responsibility to his people. When Luke
and the Rebels fought against the Empire in Star Wars,
they believed that it would create a freer, safer galaxy for
all. Through all the twists and turns, the best stories
aren’t simply fun or entertaining. They are meaningful.
A story has a higher purpose than just entertainment. A
meaningful story examines a part of life. It can place
different belief systems in conflict with one another. It
shows characters struggling for something they believe
in. Stories with meaning can impact an audience and
even change the way they live and see the world.
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While I don’t agree with everything that screenwriting
guru Robert McKee says, McKee is absolutely correct
when he says that M eaning Produces Emotion.
By focusing on creating meaning in a story, emotion is
produced. Emotion is a side-effect of meaning. Meaning
is the reason stories exist. Throughout history, stories
have served to show others how to correctly live.
Archetypal stories like “the knight who slays the dragon
to save the fair maiden” or “the hero who sacrifices his
life to save his people” exist to show us how to live. The
knight was courageous in the face of danger. The hero
put the lives of others before his own.
“Through all the twists and turns, the
best stories aren’t simply fun or
entertaining. They are meaningful.”
When we are young, these simple, archetypal stories are
new and fresh to us. We learn from them and we want to
take in as many as we can. However, when we get older,
the world becomes more complicated. Beliefs that used
to make sense in our minds now seem fuzzy and unclear.
Perfectly simple belief systems suddenly don’t fit
perfectly in the adult world.
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The world becomes filled with complications,
exceptions, and nuance. And suddenly those stories we
once loved so much seem too simple or cookie cutter
or… formulaic. Just as we grow, our stories must grow
with us. Some of the greatest stories ever created take a
look at the messiness of the world and allow us to think
about what the different characters believe and how
those beliefs move their actions.
When complex characters struggle with what they
believe, the audience struggles alongside them. And this
is where the emotion of the story is found. Meaning
Produces Emotion. The stakes of the story are created
not by whether or not the guy will get the girl or the girl
will get the promotion. The stakes of the story are
created by what the guy believes will happen if he gets
the girl or how the girl believes this promotion will
change her life.
The meaning in the story is created by characters making
choices and taking action because of what they believe.
In The Dark Knight, Batman believes Gotham city
needs someone who will stand against corruption and
support the rule of law so that the people can live safely.
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The Joker believes the only way to live is to abandon
rules and to accept the chaos of the world.
In Whiplash, Andrew believes that greatness should be
pursued and achieved no matter the cost. While his
father believes that there is value in a normal life and that
Andrew’s pursuit of greatness will destroy him.
In Snowpiercer, Curtis believes the poor must rise and
take what they need while Wilford believes the only way
the system works is for everyone to be in their proper
place.
It’s not simply the wants of the characters that conflict.
It is their beliefs about the world that conflict. Beliefs
create the actions and choices of the characters.
Ultimately, character beliefs create meaning. And
meaning produces emotion.
Meaning is what separates great stories from simply a
fun night at the theater. Meaning is what impacts the
lives of people. Meaning is why stories have become such
an integral part of the human experience.
But how do you create this meaning?
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Philosophy
Every good writer is a philosopher. I believe that to write
a great story, you must (either consciously or
unconsciously) have a strong understanding of
philosophy and how it affects the lives of human beings.
For those of you who don’t know exactly what
philosophy is, philosophy is the study of knowledge,
reality, and existence. Philosophy seeks to understand
the world around us at the deepest level. In a way,
philosophy is the study of meaning, therefore it is a
fundamental element of good storytelling.
Philosophy asks questions like “Why are we here?” “Is
there ultimate purpose?” “Is there a god above us?”
“How should we live?” Whether or not you realize it,
you have a personal philosophy. Your personal
philosophy is the set of beliefs and experiences that
govern how you view yourself, how you see the world,
and also how you live.
What you believe shapes what you do. And what your
characters believe will shape what they do. This is why
beliefs are important. I believe that to be a great writer,
you must be a philosopher. You must face the big
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questions of life head on. It’s not necessary to find the
answers, but you must struggle with the questions.
This is the biggest thing that separates mediocre
stories from great ones.
The audience will always be perfectly safe, physically,
when watching your film, but their ideas and personal
philosophies should never be safe.
When you can challenge philosophical ideas in a story, it
engages the audience because the story has real stakes.
You’ve forced the audience to think about the different
beliefs your characters hold. You’ve forced the audience
to think about themselves and how they live. Ideas have
consequences. Ideas shape what we do. And you can
present your own philosophical struggle through your
story.
“The audience will always be perfectly
safe, physically, when watching your
film, but their ideas and personal
philosophies should never be safe.”
The audience doesn’t even need to be aware of their own
personal philosophies and ideas to engage with your
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story in this way. This is usually where the emotional
reaction comes into play. The audience is moved
emotionally because of the philosophical ideas of the
story. And because they are emotionally moved, the
story can change their philosophical beliefs.
As a writer it is important to cultivate a state of mind
where you can think about big questions and change
your mind often. The world is rarely black and white so
your stories shouldn’t be either. As a storyteller, you
should be able to understand why people do evil and
cruel things. People always view themselves as the hero
of their own story and it’s your job to understand why.
A great writer is an independent thinker. I’d challenge
you to take that idea to its limits.
What’s the most controversial thought you hold?
If it’s something as trivial as whether or not pineapple
belongs on pizza, then you have some serious work to
do. Is there a single thing you believe that the majority of
people around you don’t? What gives you the right to tell
stories if you don’t have a single thing to say?
Need somewhere to get started? Here are some questions
to ponder. Maybe you get a story idea or two out of
them.
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What is right and wrong? What is happiness? Can we
even be happy for more than a moment? Is happiness
even the point of life? If suffering makes us stronger,
should we seek out suffering? Why shouldn’t we kill
ourselves? Is love real? Does love last? Is selfishness evil
or natural? Does philosophy even matter?
If you read through this part of the book and thought,
“What a load of garbage. You don’t need any of this to
write a good story.” I would ask, “Why?” And then your
answer to my question wouldn’t actually tell me why
philosophy isn’t important to stories, it would give me a
piece of your philosophical view of the world.
But philosophy is only the beginning. If all we needed
was philosophy, then we should just sit around and
write philosophy essays instead of stories. But this isn’t
it. So what are we missing?
Psychology
If you don’t understand human psychology and human
behavior, you might as well just write philosophy books.
The beauty of a great story is that it attaches these
philosophical ideas to human experiences. We don’t live
up to our highest versions of ourselves. We don’t always
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follow what we believe to be true. We sometimes lie to
ourselves about what we really want.
Humans are not simply their philosophical ideas. We are
also our biological impulses, mistakes, emotions, and
experiences. Our brains are these weird jumbles of
synapses and pathways. Are we completely biological or
do we have souls? (Oops, philosophy is leaking through
again.) We can have these wonderful moments of focus,
clarity, and direction and then right afterwards the only
thing on our minds is eating and sex. We do not view the
world through the cold, grey lense of logical philosophy.
We view the world through our experiences, our
emotions, and our impulses.
“The beauty of a great story is that it
attaches these philosophical ideas to
human experiences.”
We aren’t simply brains in jars contemplating the big
questions of life. And we aren’t simply animals
following every single instinct. We’re somewhere in
between. And THAT is what makes storytelling one of
the most powerful tools in the world.
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I want you to seriously take in this next sentence,
because it’s something I absolutely believe to be true.
The writer who studies philosophy and psychology
without ever reading a single screenwriting book will be
miles ahead of the writer who only reads screenwriting
material and never studies philosophy and psychology.
There is philosophy and psychology in every element of
a story. For example, some writers struggle with
dialogue. They can’t seem to get their characters talking
how they want. So they read a Sorkin script or two and
hope that they will suddenly be great at writing dialogue.
But I believe if you never studied how to write dialogue
and only studied philosophy and psychology, your
ability to write dialogue would dramatically improve.
How would this happen? Dialogue is less about how
characters say specific words in a specific order and
much more about how characters think, how they feel,
and what they believe.
Understanding how characters think, feel, and believe is
all found in philosophy and psychology. We find what
characters want in what they believe about themselves
and the world. We find how they think and feel in their
personalities and emotions.
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So how do we wrap all these ideas about philosophy and
psychology and actually put it all into the core of a
story?
Philosophical Conflict
A few years ago, I was struggling with a new screenplay. I
had finished it, but it felt meaningless. I couldn’t figure
out why. It was well structured. I liked the characters. It
had some fun dialogue and a few cool scenes. But it just
felt so bland. It wasn’t emotionally moving. It wasn’t
profound. But I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I
thought all of the pieces were there. I couldn’t figure out
what the problems were. And if I couldn’t figure out
what the problems were, how was I going to be able to
fix it?
Then I found a video by Michael Arndt, a screenwriter
known for writing Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3, and
Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Arndt introduced me to
a concept that changed my writing and view on story
forever; the Philosophical Conflict.
You’re probably aware of the two main divisions of
conflict in a story; the external conflict and the internal
conflict. The external conflict is the different problems
and challenges the character faces in the world around
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them, and the internal conflict is the problems and
challenges the character faces within themselves.
But these two divisions of conflict are only the top two
layers. There is a third layer that actually supports both
the external and internal conflict. It is the Philosophical
Conflict and it is the most important type of conflict in
your story.
Why is it the most important type of conflict? Well I’m
glad you asked. It’s because the Philosophical Conflict
defines the meaning of the story. Stories without
philosophical conflict struggle to deeply impact an
audience.
The philosophical conflict creates the external and
internal conflict. What a character believes about the
world will define what they want and what they are
willing to do to get it. Their philosophical beliefs create
the external conflict. The philosophical conflict creates
the internal, emotional struggle between choices and
beliefs as the character pursues what they want. The
struggle between different beliefs creates the internal
conflict.
I think it’s a tragedy that this type of conflict is rarely
taught in film schools or talked about by professional
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writers who, either being aware or unaware, use this type
of conflict every day in their writing. The fact that story
teachers want to constantly talk about external and
internal conflict, but never philosophical conflict means
that they produce weak writers year after year. Writers
who don’t even have the vocabulary to correctly examine
why a story isn’t working.
I’ve seen it too many times; A writer knows their story
isn’t great, but they can’t quite figure out why. The
characters are there. The structure is perfect. The
dialogue is snappy. But the story still feels stale and
unremarkable. Where did they go wrong?
They can’t figure out that their story is flat because it has
no meaning. The characters never have philosophical,
ethical, or moral struggles. The story doesn’t examine an
aspect of life, it simply runs characters through a story
formula and adds some witty dialogue and a few fun
scenes.
It has been amazing watching some of my students go
through the Systematic Rewriting section of The
Practical Screenwriting Course as well as talk with me
and other group members in the private Facebook group
and having a eureka moment. They’ve been lost trying to
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rewrite their story and make it better for so long and
they finally found the core missing piece.
When you understand this, you start seeing the code in
the matrix. You start seeing how characters in TV shows
and films hold specific sets of beliefs that conflict with
themselves and the other characters.
When you finally see philosophical conflict...
You will see how Rick Sanchez in Rick and Morty
struggles with nihilism, narcissism, depression, and
alcoholism which makes him a dysfunctional
powerhouse of beliefs and personal struggles.
You will see how the different jurors in 12 Angry Men
change their verdict not on evidence, but because other
jurors changed what they believe.
You will see how Dick Cheney in VICE justifies his
actions by believing that what he did was justified
because he kept American lives safe.
You will see how Stephen Hawking remains hopeful in
The Theory of Everything even when faced with ALS and
humanity’s insignificance in the universe.
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I cannot emphasize the philosophical conflict enough.
No single other concept has changed the quality of my
writing as dramatically as this. Knowing this has allowed
me to help myself and help hundreds of others improve
their writing.
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CHAPTER TWO
The Biggest Mistakes
Screenwriters Make
Usually this is where we would talk about mistakes in
character creation, or maybe common problems in story
structure. But those aren’t the real problems. Script
problems are just symptoms of much deeper problems.
And hopefully you’ve noticed that we aren’t here to just
fix some dialogue or make a scene wittier. We’re here to
fundamentally shift your perspective on storytelling,
how it works, and what its purpose is.
Rather than looking at what’s on the writer’s page, I
want to take a look in their mind. The problems in a
writer’s mindset and thought processes will be the core
problems that create mistakes in their story. Without
addressing these deeper problems, learning things like
story structure, character arcs, and conflict will not be
helpful.
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So let’s go through a few mistakes writers make. I
understand these mistakes because they are mistakes I’ve
made. If you see yourself making some of these mistakes
then that’s great! Realizing it can set you on a new path
to strengthen your writing for the long term.
Writing Mistake #1: They are more concerned with
self-image than with writing.
You’ve definitely come across these types of writers,
whether in person, in class, or online. These are the types
of people that always want to seem interesting and act
like they know the most about writing. They also deeply
feel that they are these geniuses whom no one else
understands.
These are the types of people that would describe
themselves as a “maladjusted dreamer” or a
“misunderstood creator.” Many times this type of writer
seems initially attractive. They seem to know a lot about
story and creativity, but once you pull back the layers a
bit, you’ll realize they have little to offer because they
aren’t writing.
You rarely see serious artists of any kind referring to
themselves in this way. It’s not that artists and writers
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shouldn’t have strong opinions, feel misunderstood, or
be self-conscious. All artists and writers feel this way. It’s
that many people end up being talkers for attention and
not writers to make an impact. It’s important to know
the difference.
Writing Mistake #2: They don’t tolerate bad pages.
When you’re starting out as a writer, you read all of these
great scripts and watch all of these movies by writers you
love. You love these stories and you want to write like
them. In your mind you know that you can’t simply sit
down and immediately write like them. But then you
start writing and you write poorly. So you get angry. You
hate the pages you’ve written and you hate yourself. You
wish you could just write like the writers you look up to.
But you’re forgetting that you’re reading the scripts of
writers who have written for years. Men and women
who have honed their craft by putting hours and hours
into their work until they became ruthlessly great.
So why are you comparing your first draft to the
finished works of these writers?
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This is something I did. I would literally go on walks
around my college campus after writing for a while. I
hated my work and I wanted to give up. Why couldn’t I
just write well? Why did I have all of these great ideas in
my head but the second I sat down to write them,
everything fell apart?
My problem was I wasn’t allowing myself to write bad
pages. You have to let yourself write poorly so that you
can eventually write well. Don’t skip over this. I really
want you to take this seriously. Allowing yourself to
write bad pages is a superpower. If you can write bad
pages, it makes it so much easier to finish your script
drafts. If you can finish your script drafts, then you’re
able to see your mistakes and fix them as you write more.
Writing garbage is the first step to writing greatness.
Everyone wants their first screenplay to be perfect and
win an Oscar. But that is the mindset of the amateur
daydreamer. And we’re not here to daydream, we are
here to write. Writing is a long-term task. It’s not
something you do for three months, become amazing at,
and then move on to the next thing. Writing well takes
years. It takes focus. And it takes dedication.
Some people are simply unable to overcome their
perfectionism and write bad pages. These people will,
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unfortunately, never write anything good. But you can
overcome this. You can write bad pages. It’s simple. You
sit down and write and you don’t let yourself get in the
way. You stop attaching your identity to every word you
put down and you just start. It’s fine if you hate every
word. It’s fine if what you’re writing never sees the light
of day. That’s not the point in the beginning. The point
is to write. To get used to the habit. To build
consistency. Let’s worry about the right things in the
right order.
“Allowing yourself to write bad pages is
a superpower.”
I’ve talked to a lot of my students in the course who have
struggled to sit down and get bad pages out. But with
the lessons they learned in The Practical Screenwriting
Course and a community around them in the private
Facebook group, they’ve been able to push through their
mental blocks and get their stories out onto the page.
I’ve done it. They’ve done it. You can do it too.
Writing Mistake #3: They don’t write.
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This seems obvious, right? But when was the last time
you wrote? Was it today? This week? Have you written
at all this month? Writing is a challenging task, so we as
writers naturally want to put it off. But if you’re not
writing, you’re not improving. And if you’re not
improving then you’re getting worse. There is no such
thing as standing still.
Screenwriters want to reach for that new book on
screenwriting to get the latest story tactic or industry
edge. But then that tactic or industry edge is gone in six
months, replaced by a new book preaching an “even
better tactic” for a story. All the while the writer gets
zero words down onto the page.
What if the writer spent those six months simply writing
a draft and learning from their mistakes? Wouldn’t they
learn more from examining their own work than reading
a new book on story tactics?
Writing Mistake #4: They don’t study philosophy
and psychology.
Structure, characters, and conflict are only one piece of
the story puzzle. An understanding, both academically
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and experientially, of philosophy and psychology is what
separates mediocre stories from truly great ones.
Any mediocre writer can give a story a set-up, catalyst,
debate, fun and games, dark night of the soul, and a
climax. But creating deeply drawn characters both in
their beliefs and in their actions is something else
entirely. It requires a strong understanding of the human
mind. It requires knowing what motivates people to
view themselves as doing good even if they are seen by
others as cruel and evil. It requires understanding why
someone is willing to die for a set of beliefs and why
others will kill for those beliefs.
Again, I would go as far as to say a writer who struggles
with truth and meaning and has cultivated a strong
understanding of the human psyche will always write a
stronger, more honest story than the writer who has
done nothing but study character archetypes, conflict,
and story structure.
Writing Mistake #5: They don’t focus on creating a
strong writing process.
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It’s possible to point to screenwriters who write their
stories in a frenzy and emerge with a completed draft in
only a few hours. (That reminds me, go to
Youtube.com/TylerMowery if you want to watch me go
from no idea to a completed feature length screenplay in
48 hours.)
But these people have cultivated a writing process you
simply aren’t seeing. They are still doing the work. They
just play the risky game of keeping it all in their head
until they are ready to go. Unless you’re Aaron Sorkin or
Taylor Sheridan, I’d avoid writing in a frenzy.
You need to be able to develop a system where you can
write each day. You need to be able to develop a mindset
where you aren’t constantly ruled by procrastination
and writer’s block. If you can’t actually sit down and put
words onto the page, you can’t be a writer. It’s really that
simple.
It’s so frustrating because this is such an important part
of writing, but few talk about it or how to do it
correctly.
Imagine if you had a swim teacher who sat you down
beside the pool and explained to you all of the concepts
of swimming. He explained how to float, how to stroke
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with your arms, and how to kick with your legs. Maybe
he also taught some different tactics on moving faster in
the water and how to breathe correctly. But then he
walked away.
And if you asked him if he knew how to swim he would
say, “Oh I haven’t swam in 20 years.” You don’t need
your swim teacher to be an Olympic swimmer, but it
would be nice if he could swim! Hear me when I say this,
because it’s extremely important and if you can truly
absorb this piece of information it will be extremely
valuable.
Writing bad pages is always better than not writing
anything.
It’s simple, yes. Yet so many writers don’t write because
they are worried about being bad. You can’t be good if
you can’t accept being bad for a while. When you can
stop tying your identity and self-worth to whether or
not you’re writing well, then you can write more in less
time because you will have defeated one of the biggest
elements of procrastination.
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Writing Mistake #6: They don’t learn how to take
criticism.
First off, I believe in having an ego. I believe in knowing
that you can improve, knowing that you can write well,
writing until you write well, and defending good writing
when you’re given bad notes.
That being said, if you’ve written less than 5 screenplays,
it’s highly unlikely that you’ve written a masterpiece
even if you think you have. And if you’ve been able to
separate your self-worth from your writing like I talked
about before, then getting criticism becomes even easier.
If you finish your first screenplay and take it to some of
your close friends and they tell you it’s “pretty good”
then know that your friends have no taste in what a
good story looks like. They may be great people, but
you’re done going to them for writing advice.
However, if you take your first screenplay to your
friends and they politely but strongly tell you that it
needs a lot of work, then you are part of a very lucky few
who have friends who care enough to tell you the truth
about your writing.
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This is something I’ve focused on cultivating in the
Facebook Group for The Practical Screenwriting Course
because I want the people inside to not only get
constructive feedback from me, I want the other
students to take what they’ve learned about rewriting a
story and help point out problems for others.
But remember, if you have nothing for yourself and
others to criticize, your writing won’t improve. You
need that bad script so that you can see the specific
things you struggle with. Ideally the more a writer writes,
the better they are at receiving criticism and the better
their stories become.
Writing Mistake #7: They don’t find other people
to encourage them and hold them accountable.
Just like with getting good criticism, accountability
requires a strong community. This can be two people, or
three, or five, or hundreds like in The Practical
Screenwriting Facebook Group. But the idea is that you
stay in this bubble where you can see others pushing
themselves, getting better, sharing their victories, and
sharing their bad days. This way you move forward
together.
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It is extremely rare to stick to a new habit like daily
writing without some sort of community where the
members can push each other forward. The problem is
that we get used to failing ourselves, but we don’t like
failing others. So when you bring in someone else and
tell them to hold you accountable, you have a much
higher chance of actually sticking with your goals. Doing
this has helped me finish multiple screenplays. It may be
the key to actually applying new information that you
learn.
Maybe you saw yourself in some of the things I talked
about in this chapter. If you did, know that I didn’t
write these things to attack you or call you out. I wrote
them because I struggled with these mistakes and
realizing what I was doing helped me become a much
better writer. I hope that they can help you as well.
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CHAPTER THREE
The Importance of
Finishing
Let me ask you a question. How many terrible movies
have you seen? I’m sure you’ve seen a lot. Maybe you’ve
even had the thought, “how did that ever get made into a
movie?” Yet there is a writer who wrote that script and it
got made into a movie.
This shows you an important truth; terrible writers sell
scripts all the time because they are finishing and others
aren’t. You can write something better. You know you
can. You wouldn’t have started writing if you didn’t
believe you could do better. Obviously there are things
like connections, location, right place right time, blah
blah blah… of course these things matter. But these
writers are still finishing their scripts. And if they
weren’t finishing, all those other things wouldn’t matter
at all.
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Remember Your Love of Writing
Too many writers get a few years into writing and forget
why they want to do it. All they can see now is the
struggle. Every day it seems like something else pulls
their attention. They can’t stand the idea of still writing
bad pages. They’re so lost in the latest structural method
or story beat formula and they can’t think straight
anymore.
I want you to think back to what got you into writing in
the first place. For me, it was all those books in my local
library. I wasn’t thinking about finishing a story or
learning about all the different concepts behind a good
story. I just loved stories. And this love of stories is
important to your ability to write. You can’t ever forget
why you write and what made you love writing. When
you forget that, it’s all over.
Jordan Peele, writer/director of Get Out and Us, said, “If
I’m not having fun, I’m doing it wrong. If you get to a
point where you hate what you’re doing. It’s up to you
to figure out how to have fun while doing it.”
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“You can’t ever forget why you write and
what made you love writing.”
If you can’t ever find your love of writing again, you’ll
never be able to write things that are truly great. It takes
that core love to build on the long term writing habits. It
takes that core love to push through when a story simply
isn’t working the way you want it to. There’s nothing
wrong with finding the fun in your story and focusing
on that. Maybe you love building the world. Maybe you
love thinking about how it will be shot. Maybe you love
deep character creation. Spend time on these parts you
love when you need to be carried through the difficult
portions of finishing your script. It will be worth it in
the end.
On Average Writing
I’ve been known to give blunt story criticism, both to
those who ask me to read their scripts and to movies I
watch. I am never intentionally insulting and always
keep the focus on improving the story, but some have
still been put off by my criticism in the past.
I’ve had a lot of people tell me that a movie was “fine”
and that I “just need to loosen up and learn to enjoy
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things.” And honestly, I’ve thought a lot about this.
What is the point of being critical of bad or average
stories? What is the point of giving blunt criticism of a
script when students ask me for it? Why not just enjoy
stories?
Stanley Kubrick is hailed as one of the greatest directors
of all time. He was known for his ruthless perfectionism
and directing style that crossed the line on more than
one occasion. Kubrick said something on this subject
that has stuck with me. Kubrick said, “Either you care,
or you don't. There's no in-between. And if you care,
then go all of the way.”
And I agree. I genuinely want to live in a world where
movies aren’t simply a fun couple of hours, but they are
deeply meaningful as well as entertaining. I want to live
in a world full of extremely strong writers. I’d love for
people 500 years from now to look back and remember
the cultural impact of the stories we tell today. I see no
reason to accept mediocrity and work that is “just fine”.
“Either you care, or you don't. There's no
in-between. And if you care, then go all
of the way.” - Stanley Kubrick
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I can do more. We can do more. And I believe we
should. I hope that the work I do on my Youtube
channel, in this book, and in my course can push
screenwriters in the right direction. Even if it’s just a
little. Because I care. And I always will care. Stories are
what I love. I think about young me sitting in my
bedroom, completely lost in another world. I hope he’d
be proud of me.
Knowing Vs Doing
There’s a big difference between knowing something
and actually being able to do it. There’s a saying I like
that goes: “In theory, there is no difference between
theory and practice; but in practice, there is.”
My Youtube channel is all about theory. Helpful theory,
I hope. But still theory. On my Youtube channel, I’m
teaching story concepts. Ideas you can take and add to
your understanding of story. I’ve done my best to make
these theory videos in the most practical way possible,
but they are still just theory.
Knowing how to structure a story is great. Knowing
how to build a character arc is helpful. But at some
point, your writing will come down to you staring in
front blank page and you will have to write.
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You won’t be able to hold thirty different ideas in your
head about how a story should start, how to maintain
pace, or how to write your dialogue. If you try to do this,
you won’t write anything.
At that point, knowing and doing have become two
completely different things. You know too many
different theories and ideas, so you can’t simply do it.
And what’s the point of learning about writing if you
can’t apply any of it?
This is why I’ve built The Practical Screenwriting
Course. A course built not to just teach you more story
theory. It’s a course built to keep you writing
consistently while constantly improving through
rewriting. This course isn’t here to tell you what to
write. It’s also not here to tell you that there’s only one
single way to write a story.
I’m only focused on getting you through the most
difficult problems you and other writers face; writer’s
block and rewriting. If you can’t get yourself to sit down
and write consistently, then no amount of story theory
will ever help you.
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If you can’t organize and rewrite your drafts in a simple,
focused way, then you will never be able to fully tell the
story you want to tell. Your only focus when writing
should be getting your story out. And your only focus
once you have that story out, is improving it in an
organized, focused way so that it can fully become the
story you want to tell.
Is Film School Worth It?
“I think you’re making a colossal mistake.”
Those were the exact words my professor told me right
before I dropped out of film school. I was uncertain
about what would happen when I dropped out, but I
had realized film school wasn’t for me. It wasn’t because
I felt like I couldn’t do it. I had excellent grades at the
time. It wasn’t because I believed I was already this
prodigious writer and could leave these people in the
dust to win Oscars. Nothing like that at all.
There’s a lot of talk about whether or not film school is
worth it. Some people go to film school because they
assume they need to go to college and they are also
interested in film. Some people go to film school because
they swear by it as the best way to become educated in
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film as well as to network with the next generation of
filmmakers. These are legitimate reasons.
Then others don’t go to film school, believing that they
can get an advantage by just being in the industry earlier
and making more connections. Some believe that they
can learn just as well from books and online resources.
Others feel like it’s not worth it to go tens of thousands
into debt for a film education. These are also legitimate
points.
But I think the debate over film school vs no film school
is missing the point. And it’s harming future
screenwriters and filmmakers. If all you do is wait for a
professor to assign you to write, then you don’t have a
real shot as a screenwriter. There are hundreds of
thousands of film school students who want to be
writers simply waiting for their professor to give them
their next assignment. Outside of that, they do not write
on their own. They don’t improve unless told to do so.
And this is the real problem. If you cannot write when
no one pushes you and when no one else cares but you,
then you will never write well.
Aaron Sorkin, writer of The West Wing, The Social
Network, Steve Jobs and many more, wrote the play for A
Few Good Men on cocktail napkins while he was at
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work. No one was making him write. He had no
assignments to turn in and no guarantee anyone would
ever see it. But he was writing. You must adopt the same
attitude if you ever want to pull yourself out of the
crowd of mediocre writers who only write when they’re
told.
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SECTION TWO:
A Better Way to Look
at Story
46
CHAPTER FOUR
A Better Way to Look At
Story
One thing I noticed when I was learning the
fundamentals of writing is that many teachers like to talk
about core concepts in a way that doesn’t seem to
actually apply to the writer sitting in front of a blank
page. Let me explain.
You may have heard the conventional wisdom that every
line of dialogue should move the story forward and hold
some sort of emotional weight. I’ve even watched some
teachers take a scene and break down every single line
and describe the exact emotion that the particular line
brings to the scene. Sure, there’s a time and place for this
type of analysis, but what happens when you’re actually
sitting in front of the blank page? Are you supposed to
be thinking about how every single line is emotionally
motivated?
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What about when you think about structure? There’s all
sorts of breakdowns, pyramids, and diagrams that
visualize different ways of writing a screenplay. What
about characters? Backstory? Arc? Motivations?
Foreshadowing? Formatting?
What happens is that writers get bogged down with way
too much information. I’m not saying this information
is useless. A lot of it is actually very helpful. I’ve listened
to many screenwriting teachers as I’ve developed. But it’s
important to find the difference between practical
information and interesting analysis.
This was what I was confused about. But after
continuing to learn and write, I feel like I’ve begun to
learn what’s practical and what isn’t. The goal of this
second section is to help you focus the information
you’ve learned and put you on the right track to dive
into your next screenplay.
So how should you actually think about all of these story
ideas when you’re ready to sit down and start your story?
First off, I’m not talking about whether or not you
should write a general outline, or a scene by scene
outline, or write a treatment, or just start writing. Those
are specifics to your process. They all work. They are all
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valid. I’ll leave others to argue about which method is
right.
I’m talking about breaking up a story into its important
parts and using those different parts to begin building
your story in a way that you aren’t overwhelmed with
information.
I want you to have something. It’s a simple graphic, but
it is something I’ve built that has dramatically helped my
writing, both in the pre-writing phase and the rewriting
phase.
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This is something I’ve created. I call it the Story
Pyramid. Ask my students inside The Practical
Screenwriting Course and they will tell you that this
simple pyramid has helped make the writing and
rewriting process much clearer. Let me explain how it
works.
Philosophical Conflict
Remember the Philosophical Conflict?
The Philosophical Conflict sits at the bottom of the
pyramid. This is the foundation of the story. Everything
else sits on top of it. It carries the weight of the story.
Remember: Robert McKee said that Meaning Produces
Emotion. And you inject your story with meaning
through the competing ideas and beliefs.
Characters
Characters are the next level of the pyramid. While your
characters will have smaller conflicts over different wants
and goals, they will also be struggling philosophically.
The struggles the characters face won’t simply be about
beating their rival in the race or making ten million
dollars. They will struggle over what it costs them to win
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the race. What they have to sacrifice for the pursuit of
success. Whether or not that success is worth it. And
whether they are pursuing victory for the right reasons.
In Snowpiercer, Curtis sacrifices the lives of his followers
as he heads towards the front of Wilford’s train. Curtis
believes getting to the front of the train and killing
Wilford will create a better world for his people.
In Sicario, Kate begins to sacrifice her traditional view of
morality because she believes that cutting the cartel off
at the head will stop the flow of drugs into the United
States.
In Mulan, Mulan risks shaming her family and going
against tradition because she believes fighting for her
people is worth it.
Concept and Genre
Your concept and genre will define some of the
expectations for your story. If you’re writing a horror
story, the audience will expect to be disturbed and
frightened. If you’re writing a comedy, the audience will
expect a lot of jokes throughout the entire story.
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All genres have different rules and expectations that
come with them. This doesn’t mean your story must be
forced into a particular genre, but the vast majority of
stories do fit into a genre so it’s important to understand
how genres work.
Some stories specifically subvert or go against the
expectations of an audience when writing a story in a
particular genre. But you can’t break the rules of a genre
without actually understanding how the rules work.
Concepts work in a similar way. A story driven from a
concept will usually have rules within the universe that
the story must obey. If the audience can’t understand
the world of the story, they will be frustrated when
characters are unexpectedly saved or use an unexplained
trick to get what they want.
Time travel films are notorious for having messy,
undefined rules that leave audiences scratching their
heads in frustrated confusion. Even the best ideas can
suffer if the writer doesn’t establish the rules of the
world.
The audience is fine with an odd story or a story that
breaks the rules of our world as long as the logic of the
story stays intact. For example in Star Wars, characters
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and the audience can hear in space. We know that,
because space is a vacuum, sound does not travel
through it. But because Star Wars sets up the rule
quickly, it doesn’t take the audience out of the story.
Set up the rules of your story and stick to them. Be fully
aware of the rules behind the concept and genre of your
story so that you can use them to your advantage.
Structure
Many people focus on story structure before any other
part of their story, but there’s a good reason why I put it
after Philosophical Conflict, Characters, and
Concept/Genre. Because while structure is absolutely
important, good structure can’t save a story that doesn’t
have a good core philosophical conflict and characters.
Structure is nothing but the organization of the
momentum of a story. And you can easily have a
well-organized story that is shallow and meaningless.
Being good at organizing a story doesn’t mean you’re
good at building a story worth telling, so it’s important
to focus on the other foundational layers of the Story
Pyramid.
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A poorly organized story that is worth telling can
definitely be better than a well organized story that isn’t
worth telling. Obviously having both good organization
and a story worth telling is the best way to go, but I’m
explaining this in regards to the level of importance.
There’s all sorts of structural methods out there. If
you’ve watched my Youtube content, then you will
know I enjoy using Dan Harmon’s story circle for its
versatility and ability to be specific when you want it to
be and general when you want it to be.
It doesn’t really matter what kind of structural system
you favor. Many writers have written fantastic stories
with something as simple as what Aristotle outlines in
Poetics. (Aaron Sorkin is a big fan of Aristotle’s Poetics.)
Maybe you like Freytag’s Pyramid, a structural method
seen in many of Shakespeare’s plays. Maybe you invent
your own structure like Christopher Nolan did when he
created his “Hairpin Structure” for Memento. Or maybe
you keep it simple and think only in terms of beginning,
middle, and end.
All of these different systems (and others I didn’t
mention) work and have been used by writers to create
great stories. But you must remember that these are
organizational tools, not the reason that the stories are
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good. If you believe structure is the key to a good story,
you will fail to tell a great story. Hundreds of bad movies
come out each year that are well-structured. You aren’t
looking to write something well structured. You are
looking to write something meaningful and impactful.
Scenes
Scenes don’t exist in a bubble. Scenes are
interconnected. Scenes are a small piece of a web. 9 times
out of 10, a problem with a scene isn’t really a problem
with that scene. It’s a problem with the larger story.
Writers try to rewrite their stories by fixing a scene here
or deleting one scene there and then they wonder why
their story is more or less the same. It’s because they
aren’t fixing the philosophical conflict, characters, genre,
and structure. They are simply trying to polish scenes.
Polishing scenes should happen much later, when you
know that the other elements I’ve laid out are very
strong.
Many times, when you’re focused on fixing the
philosophical conflict or characters, you will end up
completely changing scenes or deleting dozens of pages
from your script. This is because you are focused on
55
fixing the core problems of the story and not just
haphazardly moving scenes around.
A scene’s purpose is built off of the philosophical
conflict of the story, the character’s wants and goals, the
genre, and the structural beats of the story. Changing
around some dialogue will not suddenly make your
scene brilliant. When the more core elements of your
story are fixed, scenes flow much more naturally and you
will be able to see which scenes are working and which
scenes are not.
Dialogue, Moments, Etc.
As much as we all love dialogue, myself included, it’s like
a nice paint job on a car. Everyone loves a nice, clean
paint job on a new car, but it’s more important that the
engine runs. A pretty paint job doesn’t mean a thing if
the car won’t start. I’m sure we would all rather drive a
car with a chipping paint job that runs reliably than a car
with a beautiful paint job that constantly breaks down.
Just because you notice the dialogue, or an emotional
moment, or the word choice in an action line, that
doesn’t mean it’s really what’s making the script work.
Even Aaron Sorkin, a writer who says he loves dialogue
more than anything else in a story, admits that he needs
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to think long and hard about the characters and the ideas
behind the story before he starts writing dialogue.
Without characters and ideas driving the story, dialogue
can never truly shine.
And that is the Story Pyramid. A way to organize your
story so that you focus on the foundational elements
first and then slowly work your way to the top. Now do
you have to follow this system to finish your first draft?
Of course not. Like I talk about in The Practical
Screenwriting Course, the point of your first draft is to
get your story out on paper. When it is fully ripped out
of your mind, you can see the flaws and holes as well as
the great parts you love.
“Without characters and ideas driving
the story, dialogue can never truly
shine.”
Also it’s important to note that my story ideas never
come in these perfectly built packages that fit seamlessly
into this Pyramid. Many times I just have a scene idea or
maybe a couple characters. Or maybe I start with a moral
concept I want to explore. Once I have that shred of an
idea, I use this pyramid to flesh it out.
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If you are subscribed to my Youtube channel, you may
have seen the video where I documented my process of
writing the first draft of a screenplay from no idea to a
finished draft in 48 hours.
In that video, you will see that I started with a concept
first. From there I started to think about the possible
philosophical conflict of the story, then moved on to
building out the structure and characters.
Using this Pyramid isn’t linear. And any time you feel
creatively blocked, move onto another section. It’s not
supposed to be a prison, it’s supposed to be a guide to
keep you on the right track so you can skip all of that
stumbling around in the dark and start your story off
with the right footing.
In The Practical Screenwriting Course, I use this Story
Pyramid to help you rewrite your stories as well. I go
deep into how you can use it to find and fix your story’s
problems. I also take two Hollywood scripts and use the
Story Pyramid to rewrite their plots to make the stories
much more compelling. Nothing has helped me
organize and fix my own stories more than the Story
Pyramid.
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CHAPTER FIVE
The Amateur Fear of Rules
and Principles
Many screenwriters and filmmakers are obsessed with
rule-breaking. They hate story structure systems. They
love finding films that are “exceptions” to these rules and
pointing them out the second someone brings up a
structural format.
I understand the motivation behind this sort of thing.
The goal for these writers is to be original and so they
want to find films that seem to have a unique voice.
These writers believe that story rules and principles
create copy-and-paste stories for mass audiences. While
their anger is justified, it is misplaced.
Structural formats do not create copy and paste stories
for the masses any more than breaking all of the rules
creates a deep, meaningful, original story. Stories do not
fail or succeed based on how well they break the rules.
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Stories fail or succeed based on what I have talked about
so far. Like a writer’s ability to write characters who
struggle with more than simply wanting something.
Stories fail or succeed based on a writer’s ability to tell
the truth.
Originality has little to do with trying hard to be
original, and everything to do with telling the truth. The
real reason many storytellers are angered by mainstream
films is not because they are structurally formulaic, but
because the philosophical ideas within the film are safe,
repeated, and don’t make the audience think.
Writers and audiences thirst for honesty. They thirst for
stories that take a real look at how it is to be a human
and what human beings struggle with, philosophically.
Stories that are honest can follow the most obvious
structural format and still be extremely impactful.
Stories that exist to simply be flashy or “indie” and break
all of the structural rules will be interesting only to
people who are more interested in seeming cool to their
friends than they are in actually learning how to write
well.
I don’t say all of this to attack pretentious writers. I say
this because I want to show you the correct headspace
for truly original, impactful writing. Shed your false
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belief that structural formats are useless. Realize that,
regardless of structural form, the core power and
originality of a story sits inside the philosophical, ethical,
and moral conflict that the characters must struggle
through.
“Originality has little to do with trying
hard to be original, and everything to
do with telling the truth.”
As a writer, be honest about how you see the world. Not
everyone will agree with your point of view. Some
people may even hate you for it. But your story will be
impactful because it will resonate with those who
struggle in the same ways you do and see the world in the
same way you do. And this is where we find connection
through writing. Through a shared realization that
maybe we aren’t alone. That maybe there’s someone else
out there who struggles in the same way. Someone else
who isn’t quite sure how to sort the world out.
When you take that leap of honesty through your story,
you will connect with others. Until you do that, you will
write words that other people gave you. Write honestly.
Until you can do that, everything else is pointless.
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SECTION THREE:
Developing Your New
Writing Process
62
CHAPTER SIX
Reframing Your View of
the Writing Process
This chapter is full of quick, but important lessons that
will help you reframe your view of the writing process. It
will address some of the struggles you’ve faced and give
you a new mindset to overcome these obstacles.
One of the best ways to begin moving past
procrastination and writer’s block is simply to reframe
how you view that first draft. The problem with first
drafts is that so many people want their first draft to be
their last.
They may say, “yea I’ll do some rewrites” but they don’t
want to. And they aren’t actually approaching their first
draft believing they will rewrite. When someone talks
about rewrites, they usually mean changing a few lines of
dialogue and maybe cutting a scene or two.
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But that isn’t what rewriting is. Rewriting is usually
rebuilding massive portions of your story once you’ve
gotten through that first draft. An extremely small
portion of writers get their story 90% right in the first
draft. And usually this is by luck, or because they already
have source material to go off of, or they have just
written an insane amount of screenplays and their
practical knowledge of the process is so high that they
are able to get what they want quickly.
But no one starts off this way. If you really want to get
through that first draft, you must start by reframing how
you view it. Don’t view it as this full story that must be
complete and perfect immediately. View it as you
throwing your ideas at the wall so you can organize
them.
In the midst of that first draft, you’ll discover all kinds of
problems, character issues, logical inconsistencies,
research that must be done, and all sorts of other issues.
That first draft helps you solidify what will need to be
fixed later. And it helps you get that first wide stroke of
who your characters will be and what your story will
look like.
Honestly, I don’t think you should be showing anyone
the true first draft of your story. That’s only for you.
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There will likely be so much that you already see as
wrong when you get to the end of that draft that you can
immediately take down initial notes and start working
on fixing it.
Your first draft is very far away from your finished
script, but it gives you something to play with.
Something to fix. Something to build on. And having
this rough foundation is critical to building this script
into the story you want to tell.
Stop getting discouraged over your first draft. Are you
stuck on a scene? Good. Make a note of what isn’t
working. Write a terrible version of the scene that you
hate, and then write the next one. Stuck on your whole
ending? Good. Write an ending that you hate and keep
moving.
When you do this, you’ll be surprised to find that there’s
a few things you like, or an idea you didn’t have before.
And then suddenly it clicks. That’s the reason for the
first draft. To show you where your story isn’t working
and to help spark those critical good ideas you never
would have thought of otherwise.
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So go ahead and write that scene you’re dreading today.
Write it, hate it, and be okay with yourself because you
can go and change it later.
Shiny Idea Syndrome
Have you ever noticed that you get the best ideas for a
new story when you’re 15 pages into the one you’re
working on now? The second you realize that your pages
aren’t perfect, you start to think, “well maybe the entire
idea isn’t that good. Maybe I should just write
something else.”
So you find this new “great idea” and write 15 pages on
it, until you don’t like it anymore. Now you’re going to
repeat the cycle. Suddenly a newer, even BETTER idea
will pop into your head. You can’t keep writing on this
second-rate idea. You have to write this new one!
This is Shiny Idea Syndrome. The second you actually
start working on that new idea, it becomes uninteresting.
You want to run over to the next idea, then the next,
then the next.
How do you fix this? Are the ideas really just not that
great? Or is something else going on?
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This happens for two reasons:
1. You are a completely distracted person.
2. You are a self-conscious person.
You aren’t focusing on the story because your brain is
trying to go in a million different directions. Not only
that, but you aren’t focusing on the story because you’re
focused on yourself the entire time.
You’re thinking, “What will people say about my
writing? Will they say it’s good? Is it good? Am I good?
Am I ever going to be a good writer? Why am I writing
this idea? There’s probably a better idea and I’m missing
it. What if none of this works out at all?”
All of these thoughts are completely counterproductive.
So what should you do instead? The reality is that
finishing a bad idea will teach you so much more about
writing and storytelling than writing 15% of seven good
ideas. In writing, finishing will always be more valuable
to you than being perfect. You cannot be great if you
cannot learn to finish.
Writers don’t need more ideas about writing in a 3 act
structure or a 5 act structure. They need to know how to
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finish. Finishing is one of the most important parts of
writing. Without that, nothing else matters.
“You cannot be great if you
cannot learn to finish.”
Don’t jump from idea to idea. If you have another good
idea, write it down and then get back to work on the
story you were already working on.
Unnecessary Complexity
I was talking to one of the students in the Practical
Screenwriting Facebook Group, and he was asking me
for help with a script that he was struggling with. He
started to tell me about his story, what he was trying to
accomplish with it, and what others who had read it had
said about it. And what I learned quickly was that he was
struggling with something many writers struggle with;
Complexity.
Many times we try to sit down and try to write
something deeply complex, because we believe
complexity is the key to meaning, depth, and originality.
But the reality is that this is rarely true. Trying to
incorporate multiple plotlines and a range of themes all
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into a story that takes major influences from five other
stories will leave you frustrated, confused, and lost.
Think about the films that have been the most impactful
to you. The ones that made you want to write. If you
really take the time to analyze them, are they really that
complex? Chances are they aren’t.
They may seem complex on the surface. They may have
twists and turns, or deal with intense philosophical
themes, but it’s likely that they stay on one single track
and don’t deviate from that for the entire story. What I
like to say is that a great screenplay is focused.
When I say focused, I mean that the script realizes it has
a limited amount of pages to tell it’s story. It doesn’t try
to make seven major claims about the world. It doesn’t
try to fit into four different genres. It tries to do one
thing. If you’re confused or frustrated with the story
you’re writing now, try this: Start by organizing the story
into its most simple, straightforward version.
Once you have done that, ask yourself this question
about the story in front of you: Is this a compelling story
if it’s told in its most simple, straightforward version?
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If so, great! Maybe that should be how your story is told!
If not, then great! Now you know that the core of your
story is broken, it’s not simply how you’re telling it.
Many writers try to hide a bad story behind different
gimmicks and tricks to keep the audience guessing so
that maybe they won’t notice that the story is
unengaging or nonsensical.
Don’t do this. Look your story in the face. Place it out in
front of you where you can see it in it’s most
straightforward form so it can’t lie to you. Once you’ve
built your core story, you can go back and decide which
is the best way to tell the story.
Never Miss Twice
You’re going to have days when you don’t feel like
writing. Or when you’re just completely stuck and aren’t
sure where to go in your story.
And I’m not going to tell you that you must write those
days. But you should never miss twice.
Stephen King has a great quote in his memoir, On
Writing, he says, “Once I start work on a project, I don’t
stop and I don’t slow down unless I absolutely have to.
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If I don’t write every day, the characters begin to stale off
in my mind---they begin to seem like characters instead
of real people. The tale’s narrative cutting edge starts to
rust and I begin to lose my hold on the story’s plot and
pace.”
I’ve found that this is absolutely true for me. And so one
of the rules I’ve made for myself is to never miss twice.
Bad days happen, but when they do it’s extremely
important to keep moving the next day. If I miss a day,
writing becomes an even more important priority the
day after. It has to get done.
Don’t try to be perfect and write every single day from
page 1 to 120. Just don’t miss twice. Hold on to your
story’s idea and don’t lose the fun of writing a new story.
The longer you let your story sit, the harder it becomes
to pick back up and bring it to the finish line.
Know What to Write Next
One thing I’ve noticed about writing daily is that I enjoy
a writing session much more when I come into it with an
idea of what I’m going to write. Let me explain.
Sometimes when I sit down to write, I have an idea of
how the next 15 pages or so are going to go. Sometimes I
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could go ahead and write those 15 pages. But sometimes
I’ll stop earlier; at 5, 8, or 10. When I do this, I leave the
writing session having an idea of where I’ll be starting
the next day. It lets my subconscious think about where
the story is going.
It also lets me leave the writing session feeling excited for
the next day, rather than anxious or worried. If I write
everything that’s in my head, I’ll worry about where the
story will go the next day. It makes it harder to sit down
and write in that next writing session.
But if I know what those first few pages are going to be, I
can get into the groove quickly when I sit down to write.
If you leave every writing session worried about what
you’re going to write tomorrow, it will be harder to
write. When you leave your mind with a few ideas, it can
get you excited for tomorrow.
So if you’re having problems sitting down to write, try it
out. Leave a few pages for the next day. Let your mind
figure out where to go next. Remember, you’re
supposed to enjoy this process. It’s not supposed to be
grueling all the time. It’s supposed to be enjoyable
(sometimes). It’s storytelling. It’s what we love to do.
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Give yourself the opportunity to enjoy the process.
Gritting your teeth and pushing towards the end goal is
only a short term solution. But if you love the daily
process, you’ll write without forcing yourself.
Facing the Rewriting Monster
There’s a great feeling when you finish that first draft.
Sure it has a lot of problems, but it’s done. You got to
the end. You conquered the monster. However, one
thing I had to stop doing was getting attached to my first
drafts.
I got into this zone where I would want to keep the
majority of my first draft the same. And why not? I had
spent so much time and effort getting this thing done.
Why tear it all to pieces? This was a serious mental
hurdle that hurt my writing for a long time. The reality
is your first draft is probably only 20-30% of your
finished draft.
The first draft is usually a lot worse than you think. It
likely isn’t even close to the idea in your head. Getting
into the habit of rewriting 50%, 60%, even 90% of your
script will massively help your writing. That first draft is
about finishing and getting pages done. But once the
first draft is out, the focus shifts to making decisions that
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actually make the story better, not simply hitting a page
count.
I used to stop myself from rewriting because I didn’t
want to admit just how intense and time consuming it is
to write well. Thankfully, I’ve moved past this block and
I hope I can help others do the same.
The rewriting monster must be faced. Sometimes it can
be a little easier than the first draft, because you know
what you’re dealing with. But it’s something you have to
go through to keep getting better. Be ruthless with your
first draft. Acknowledge what you hate about it. Be
prepared to make massive, sweeping changes to a story
that isn’t working.
It doesn’t make you a bad writer. It’s just part of the
process. Have something you need to do some rewrites
on? Pull it out today and start working on that next
draft.
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SECTION FOUR:
Common Script Mistakes
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Common Script Mistakes
Not only did I want to give you some thoughts on
mindset, but I want to give you some practical rewriting
advice too. These are just some of the common mistakes
I cover in the Systematic Rewriting section of The
Practical Screenwriting Course. There I have more time
to go into more detail and cover many more script
mistakes.
I’ve read a lot of scripts. I’ve read professional produced
scripts, professional unproduced scripts, and amateur
scripts. One thing I’ve noticed is that writers of all levels
seem to make the same mistakes over and over again. I
wanted to write this to help writers become more aware
of what problems they are having and give a clear way of
how to fix those problems.
Let’s begin.
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1. Most Scenes Don’t Have Meaningful
Conflict
A lot of scripts will have scenes where nothing really
changes in the characters or their relationships. No one is
any closer or farther away from their goal. It’s all
stagnant.
The key word here is meaningful. Just because your
scene has people arguing doesn’t mean it has meaningful
conflict. Some writers confuse dramatic conflict for
arguments. Those are not the same thing at all.
Meaningful conflict pushes the story forward and
doesn’t exist just to fill pages.
Solution
First, you need to get to the core of the problem to
diagnose whether you have a story that’s fundamentally
broken, or you just have a few scenes that aren’t
working.
Look at your basic idea, what is the conflict? Look at
your characters and their beliefs and wants. What
serious, difficult problems have you actually mapped out
in front of them that will challenge their beliefs? Once
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you have defined the central conflict of the story, go
back through and take out every scene that doesn’t deal
with the central conflict.
Sometimes you might go through this process and realize
you only have 15 pages left or less. That’s okay. It feels
like a lot of work down the drain, but it’s an important
lesson that will stick with you. Don’t write scenes simply
to fill up pages. Ever.
If you just have a couple scenes that aren’t working, first
start by asking yourself whether or not they are necessary
to the story. If you can delete them without skipping a
beat in the drama of your story, then delete them. But if
you realize you need them, then you need to define what
that reason is, and why they aren’t working.
A scene should do one, two, or all of these things:
1. Reveals information that turns the drama of the story.
2. Shows a character action that turns the drama of the
story.
3. Develops a character in a way that turns the drama of
the story.
You need to define the reason for the scene’s existence
then rewrite with this new understanding.
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2. Conflict Is Solved Too Easily
Something that seemed like it was going to be a big
problem was solved within a few pages of it’s entrance.
The audience ends up not caring and the characters are
unfazed. This is an issue. Any conflict that doesn’t
change the trajectory of the story is unnecessary conflict
and either should be deleted or should challenge the
characters in a way that sends them on a new trajectory.
Solution
Ask yourself how this conflict changes the characters.
How will it push them? And how will it push them to
the next level where conflict will be escalated?
One of the best ways to handle this is by thinking of
conflict in the sense of costs. A character gets what they
want; they defeat the army, stop the school bully, or get
away from the cops, but it costs them something. They
win the battle, but lose too many troops. The school
bully punches them in the face the day before prom with
the girl of their dreams. They lose the cops, but not
before being shot and now must hide while trying to stay
alive.
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When characters get what they want, but pay for it, the
story keeps moving and the conflict has a direct impact
on where the story goes. In a dramatic story, conflict
should always have a direct impact on where the story
goes.
Consequently, this is numbers 5 and 6 on Dan
Harmon’s Story Circle. Number 5: The character gets
what they want. And number 6: They pay a heavy price
for it. This can apply to scenes as well as the larger
movements of your screenplay to help give your story
the propulsion it needs.
Unfamiliar with Harmon’s Story Circle? Check out my
Youtube channel for multiple videos on the topic.
3. Unnecessarily Complicated
So many scripts end up being a lot more complicated
than they need to be. This can happen because a concept
is overshadowing a story. The characters are taking a
backseat to this wildly complex plot that is confusing
and unfocused. It can also happen because there are way
too many characters.
Many times a writer may not even know how exactly
their concept works. This doesn’t make the story more
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interesting. It usually makes the story more ambiguous
and less engaging.
Solution
Have a good grasp on your own story concept. Even if
you never fully explain it to your audience in the script,
you need to know exactly how it works. You need to
know all of the rules.
Focus your story. Whether that’s your concept, the
amount of characters, or something else. Pick one
character to be your main character even if you have an
ensemble of characters. This will help you focus your
story and keep it simple.
Even a film with a wild concept like Inception made sure
to remain uncomplicated at its core. The whole concept
is this: A group of people plant an idea in the head of a
person through dreams. That’s it. And the film doesn’t
waver from that.
If you completely lose your grip on what your story is
about, you’re in trouble. It’s okay to wander around and
be unsure in the beginning, but once you have a finished
story, you need to know what’s happening.
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4. Coincidence and Convenience Drives
The Script, Not Characters or the Conflict
In stories with this problem, things just happen to the
characters, with little purpose or direction. It’s fine to
have a few moments of coincidence that hurt the
character, because that’s believable and can add to the
conflict of the story. But having convenient elements
that get the characters out of a tough spot will bore the
audience.
Solution
Some of the best ideas happen when your characters are
stuck and you have no idea how to get them out of the
situation. Rather than taking the easy way out, give the
problem some thought.
Focus on what the characters you’ve created can do to
get themselves out of a bad spot. Focus on how their
actions to escape a bad situation change them as people.
When you use a terrible situation to reveal more about
who your characters are, you shove the story forward
while keeping your audience engaged.
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Remember: Coincidence that hurts or harms your
characters is much more acceptable. Bad things happen
that are out of our control all of the time. It’s much
easier for the audience to accept. Coincidences that help
the characters is just lazy writing.
5. Confusing Stories That End in an
Equally Confusing Reveal
A lot of writers believe that ambiguity makes their stories
more interesting and mysterious. I’ve found that this is
almost always not true. Ambiguity is a delicate monster.
Too much of it and you will bore your audience. Five
pages of it and people stop reading.
Ambiguity, I’ve found, is a sign of an amateur writer.
Mystery is different from ambiguity, because in a
mystery the audience will know exactly what the
characters are searching for. In an ambiguous story, the
audience simply doesn’t know what’s going on. How
will the audience empathize and engage with the
characters if they have no idea what’s going on?
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Solution
The biggest solution is a mindset switch. Too many
writers are just subscribing to the belief that ambiguity
creates intrigue. And it doesn’t. When you stop believing
this, it will immediately start helping you cut it from
your story. You can then focus on making sure the
audience is aware enough about what’s happening to
fully engage with the story.
If you’re having trouble seeing what’s overly ambiguous
in your story and what’s just well placed exposition, then
I recommend getting someone to read your story and
then ask them to explain to you what happened. If they
can’t explain the main points of what happened, then
you have a problem. If they phrase every part of their
explanation like a question then you have a problem.
(Example of a reader phrasing their explanation like a
question: “And so then he figured out she was actually
just in his own head the whole time, right?”)
6. Story Lacks Philosophical Depth
There’s a lot of surface level stories that are focused
entirely on the external conflict; a character wants
something and must overcome an obstacle to get what
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they want. While this is an important element of
storytelling, it lacks the depth that makes a great story.
At their deepest layer, stories deal with characters’
philosophical beliefs. What do characters believe about
the world and themselves that makes them want things
or makes them do things? Why does a character go after
a goal? What does the character believe about the people
around them?
These sort of questions create the deeper, more
meaningful layer of the story and is really why we
empathize and engage with the characters.
Stories that lack philosophical or moral depth end up
lacking any real emotional depth because there’s no deep
struggle in regards to why the character wants something
and how they relate to those around them.
Solution
Rather than starting with a character’s want and
obstacle, start by thinking about what beliefs drive the
character to want this particular thing. How will those
beliefs come into conflict with the beliefs of other
characters? What would it mean, on a philosophical
level, if the character failed to get what they want?
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Would the character believe they are worthless? Would
it mean that good triumphs over evil? Would it mean
that love doesn’t exist?
This level of depth can connect with and challenge what
the audience believes, making them more engaged with
the story.
7. Protagonist Is A Genre Stereotype
Many scripts have a protagonist that is cliche and boring.
The Mob Son who must prove himself in a mob movie.
The Lonely Detective in a thriller. The Fat Guy who
can’t talk to girls in a romantic comedy. The
Hard-Working Career Woman who is always
overlooked. The Old Agent coming out of retirement
for one last job. These are not characters. They are
caricatures. And they should be avoided.
Solution
Build full characters, not caricatures. Define characters
by what they believe and how those beliefs form their
actions. Build characters that are as unique as people.
You do this not by adding facial features, or talking
about what sort of clothing they wear, but by creating a
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character with a complex belief system that influences
how they live their life.
Does this mean you can’t write a story about a lonely
detective or an old agent coming out of retirement? No,
you can still write stories about those ideas. But you
need to make sure those characters are full characters.
Rust Cohle from True Detective is an example of a
lonely detective that isn’t cliche because Cohle is a fully
fleshed out character, not a caricature.
8. Villains Who Know They Are The Bad
Guy
The most boring villains are the ones that are aware they
are the villain. This usually happens because the villain
became an afterthought in the story. It can also happen
when a writer is trying to push a certain message by
oversimplifying the opposition and making them easy to
defeat.
Solution
The solution is similar to the solution for number 7.
Give your antagonist a system of beliefs that are actually
legitimate and make sense for someone to follow. Build a
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character that legitimately believes what they are doing is
correct. Make them convincing to the point where they
intensely challenge what your protagonist believes. The
most compelling villain makes the protagonist and the
audience question what they believe over the course of
the story.
Remember, human beings are not logical creatures. We
justify our actions to ourselves and always make
ourselves look like the good guy. Your villain should be
no different.
9. Characters Talk About What We
Should Be Seeing
I’ve seen a lot of scripts where two characters stand in a
room talking about events or other characters. These
scenes give the audience an exposition dump of events
that the audience should’ve seen. The characters talk
about how awesome another character is or they talk
about some crazy event that just happened.
Solution
Show, don’t tell. This is a rule not only in screenwriting,
but in all types of storytelling. It’s much more engaging
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to watch or experience something happen than hear a
character talk about what happened. When the audience
experiences the event in the story, they are emotionally
involved. Without that emotional involvement, they
disengage from the current scene.
Why not just write the more interesting version of the
story? Why not show the characters dealing with the
conflict in front of the audience rather than having the
characters talk about it? Screenwriters sometimes do this
because they have to create a story that takes place in one
location, so they have characters talk about events that
happened somewhere else to add more conflict to the
story. This never works. If you’re writing something that
has to take place in one location, then create drama that
can actually take place in that location.
10. Style Over Substance
This is more obvious in a final film, but it can still
happen in the script. Writers can write in unnecessary
prose or break script convention over and over to make
themselves seem more interesting even though they
don’t have much of a story.
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Solution
Story should always be the focus. Stylistic elements are
only engaging when they are built upon a strong core
story. It’s fine to have your own style, but you cannot let
that take away from the story. The good news is that
your personal style will bleed through while you’re
focused on telling a good story.
Now that you have a better understanding of these
problems and how to fix them, apply them to your
writing. Don’t let them remain something you read. Use
the information and improve. Go through this a few
times if it helps you. Mistakes are a part of the writing
process. The better you know what problem to look for
and how to solve it, the better your writing will be.
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Now What?
Mindset and Processes, not Tactics and
Tricks.
The most important thing I want you to take away from
this book is that great writing comes from cultivating a
deeper mindset and creating a strong writing process. It
doesn’t come from learning new tactics and tricks.
While other screenwriters focus on how to incorporate a
strong midpoint into their story, focus on
understanding philosophy. While other screenwriters
worry about whether or not their inciting incident is
taking place on page 10 or page 14, focus on building a
psychological understanding of human beings so that
you can build deeper characters.
While other screenwriters follow marketing fads and
worry about what genre is selling right at this second,
focus on learning to write stories that will fundamentally
move the audience at their core. While other
screenwriters obsess over a few lines of witty dialogue,
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focus on constructing a story with strong philosophical
conflict, deeply drawn characters, and stakes.
Fads and tactics come and go. Strong storytelling
remains. It is always better to focus on becoming a
strong storyteller than to try and jump on a quick fad or
popular concept.
What Will You Do?
Now you’ve gotten to the end. Congratulations! I know
I covered a lot and you may feel a bit overwhelmed. In
this book I went through the most important elements
of writing and how to create not only a good screenplay,
but a mind that understands the world deeply and can
tell stories fully.
At this point, you have two choices.
Option one, you can see this book as something
interesting you read one time and forget what I’ve talked
about inside. Or you can go with option two. You can
use this book to start your journey from a struggling,
confused writer to a laser focused storyteller.
If you want to continue your transformation, then join
me and hundreds of other writers in The Practical
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Screenwriting Course. The course builds off of the
information in this book. It goes deeper into actually
building an environment around you that will help you
actually get your stories out onto the page.
Not only that, but the course takes the Story Pyramid
and shows you how to use it to organize your draft so
that you can find and fix story problems. The course also
teaches you how to give and receive feedback in a way
that actually makes the story better.
You also get access to the private Facebook Group and
can immediately join a community of writers ready to
encourage you as you build your new habits.
Jacob M. is one of my students. He said,
“The course is extremely well thought out and highlights
important ideas around screenwriting that not only help
you write better, but also think better, see things clearer,
and conduct different tasks better which is all
instrumental in making you a better writer and
storyteller. In the last 70 days, I’ve written 65 of them.
And for the one’s I missed, I haven’t missed the day after.”
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Jeremy G. is another student of mine and he said,
“I felt like I finally was looking at a course that was
teaching me how to develop my thinking so I could think
like a writer. And I had never seen that anywhere.”
Bryan Q. said,
“Your lessons have made me start writing everyday and at
times I’ve often used it as a form of motivation to get me
started. I feel that it has really forced me to make a
decision about writing seriously and creating that
environment for me to really focus on my writing.”
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