Christmas is coming and the writers are getting twitchy. Are you planning to use the glorious break from everyday life to do some serious writing on that long-delayed script or novel? Give yourself and your…
I’ve read hundreds of scripts by very competent writers, and very few have ever given me a single moment of surprise. Yet all the great scripts I’ve read are constantly surprising. So what’s going wrong?…
I’m thinking a good deal about creativity at the moment, as I prepare for the launch of my next novel. In particular I’m aware that these are difficult times to let yourself go and be…
My son Oliver, whose first novel The Hollow Man came out this year (it’s great and I’m not biased) has a good insight into how writers find time for writing – both in how we…
What links Tom Waits, suicide and the Klu Klux Klan? They’ve all come up in a recent podcast I was listening to about creativity, writing and the mental games we play. The more I write,…
Have you heard of Kelly Marcel? If not yet, you soon will. You’ll probably, if you’re like me, be deeply and painfully jealous. And something she said recently might teach us something important.
I’ve been running my Exciting Treatments workshop for over ten years now, and one of the first questions I’m asked is alway, How long is a treatment supposed to be?
How can the most successful video on YouTube help you find screenwriting success?
They all say practice makes perfect. But does it help you become a better screenwriter? Maybe it doesn’t help as much as everyone thinks. Or maybe there’s another issue here that you need to address…
Want your script to stand out from the crowd? Want it to be read from cover to cover and passed from hand to hand? It’s time to discover your inner playfulness. Playfulness is not the…
I’m busy planning the Euroscript Professional Screenwriting Mini-Summer School (June 24-26), which is devoted to helping TV and cinema screenwriters develop their skills to a higher professional level – and I’ve been asking myself:
…
Few books on writing ever deal with the mental game of writing, but getting your mental game right is crucial. Today’s post gives you one of the most powerful and far-reaching tools I’ve discovered for…
You can’t beat what you learn when your script actually goes in front of the camera. Check out Tom Williams’ blog article on the filming of his script Chalet Girl – http://tomwilliamsscreenwriter.blogspot.com/2011/01/lessons-from-production.html Great article.
Newspapers tell us that women are better at it than men. Men tell us they are just as good really. Neurologists tell us that there’s no such thing – is multitasking the answer to our…
Have you made a New Year’s Resolution? To start that script? Or finish it? To start selling the novel you finished? To get proper feedback? To write more? Or less? Do you really think you’re…
Many writers put aside time to write over the holidays. It can be a great idea, and it can also be a quick way to get writers block! The problem is that squeezing all your…
Thank you for visiting. This post has now been deleted, but you can read many other articles on writing, reading, people, crime and other related subjects.
Today we have an attribute that I didn’t recognise for a long time. When great artists of all kinds are discussed we usually get a load of blah about originality and spontaneity as if great…