I’m very into re-reading at the moment (if you’re interested there’s a great article on the subject by novelist Richard Bradbury) but this week’s review is of a book I re-read by accident. To be…
What sorts the Austens from the Dan Browns? The Truffauts from the Ed Woods? It’s not using clever words. It’s not making a political statement. It’s not even necessarily creating a dazzling plot. This is…
In the second movement of Beethoven’s masterful symphony the ‘Eroica’ the music takes the form of a funeral march, building to a dramatic climax where the two trumpets have to play an almost impossible phrase.…
There are two myths that go around about keeping and breaking the rules. I’m not only talking about writing – the same myths apply to just about anything in the arts, and in fact anything…
The new Robert Downey Jnr, Robert Duvall movie The Judge brilliantly shows how to write a dark story of bitter relationships. Unfortunately, that’s not all it shows. Someone decided at some point in the script’s development to…
Straight White Male by John Niven My rating: 4 of 5 stars How do you succeed in creating a difficult central character, indeed a quite obnoxious one, and yet persuade your readers to fall in…
Were you made red with range over the ending of the often excellent mini-series Amber – or did you feel it was fresh and realistic? Is it possible to break the rules as much as they did?…
Despite what most writers think, most scripts fail to sell not because they are too different, but because they are not different enough. Many writers, including advanced writers, believe that their cinema or TV script…
I’m a great believer in resolutions – New Year and otherwise. Even if they only last a few days as a rule, then at least that’s a few days that I’ve worked differently, gone to…
This may sound strange, but did you know that writing a good scene may not be right for your script – sometimes only a bad scene will do. This week I reached a climactic point…
The ability to handle exposition really sorts the professionals from the wannabes, and I’m going to share one of my top exposition techniques with you here.