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Adaptations
From Betty: Adaptations of novels are not for the novice. It’s hard to turn something that takes a whole week to read into something that takes only 90 minutes to watch, but it can be done. I’ve adapted someone else’s fictional novel into a screenplay and it was very difficult. The most difficult part was…
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Read!
From Betty: WRITERS must read. Writers MUST read. Writers must READ! You would be surprised what has been handed to us with the infamous question, “Will you read my screenplay?” We receive poetry (I’m not kidding), essays, and poorly-formed DIY scripts where the writer at least knew they should label dialogue with a character name.…
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Be a Storyteller
From Wally: I am a screenwriter but first and foremost, I’m a storyteller. I say that because you can’t write a screenplay if you don’t have a story, and you can’t write a good story until you can tell it. To be a good screenwriter, you also have to be a good storyteller. To be…
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Where Are You Going?
From Betty: I have a lot of people brag to me that they’ve written X number of screenplays, when in all reality, they’ve only started X number of screenplays. You are not allowed to say you’ve written a screenplay that is unfinished. You can say, “I’m almost done,” but don’t say it’s written when it’s…
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And Then…And Then…Oh, Wait
From Betty: If you hear the words, “And then,” or “Oh, wait,”: or “I forgot,” coming out of your mouth while describing your movie…you’re L.O.S.T. A pitch should never, ever include any of those words. NEVER. Clearly, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. If you have properly gone through the Prewrite process,…
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72 Hours vs 48 Hrs.
From Betty: I haven’t met a single person yet who doesn’t adore Marcello Hernández. Some might even argue he’s the next Eddie Murphy…Hollywood agrees. Attempting to recreate 48 HRS. (which coupled the established Nick Nolte with the newcomer Eddie Murphy, solidifying Murphy’s film foundation) Hollywood decided to slap together a buddy movie starring the established…
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Thank You and Goodbye David Trottier
From Wally: On March 24, 2026, a remarkable friend—to me and to the entire screenwriting community—passed away. David Trottier… known to many of you as Dr. Format and the author/creator of The Screenwriter’s Bible. I met Dave at a screenwriter’s conference, one of many I attended, in and around Southern California. He was one of…
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Bait and Switch
From Betty: Starting your screenplay with a dream sequence? Might want to rethink this. Dream sequences are fun…especially in the middle of a movie. But beware when beginning your screenplay with a dream. I had a student turn in a screenplay to be read and I happened to see the first page. I loved it!…
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Writing Stories and Writing Screenplays
From Wally: One thing I see with new screenwriters is their propensity to tell the story, rather than show me the story. Remember, you are not writing a novel… you’re scripting a story. If you’ve done your prewrite, you’ve written a treatment, a scriptment, or filled out a beat sheet… in other words you have…
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What’s Wrong With This Picture?
From Wally: In our classes, our job is to help novice screenwriters learn the difference between writing a novel and writing a screenplay. When writing a novel, we have all the choices and all of the words at our disposal. Our screenplay, though, has a format. Here is an example of first drafts that we…