Thriller writer Oliver Johnson speaks to me about writing, editing and dreams TEN MINUTE READ Listen to the full interview or read the edited transcript below. I was looking forward greatly to interviewing Oliver Johnson.…
Last year, I sat with the Finnish novelist Antti Tuomainen on a panel for the literary festival Newcastle Noir. Tuomainen is a massive name in his home country and is enormously funny to listen to,…
Unusual dialogue: subtext in interrogations:I’ve written a number of articles on dialogue and subtext but this week playwright Sarah Hamilton came up with a problem about subtext in interrogations that I’d not covered before. Sarah…
I received an email this week from a novelist who wanted to learn more about becoming a screenwriter and in particular wanted some tips on writing dialogue – whether for his books or for the…
TO WRITE FOR CINEMA, MULTI-TASK Everything in a well-constructed cinema script carries out two, three or even more tasks. There’s no room for slackers on a movie screenplay page. A single line of dialogue may…
9 ways to get your subtext muscle working for readable, rich dialogue
When I started writing crime and police scripts and novels I received great feedback. They were well written, strongly structured, highly visual. But there was a problem. Once I solved that problem…
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 if you are going to succeed in movies or TV.
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…
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.
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: what is it that makes the difference between a professional script and one that isn’t?
Here’s a screenwriting tip that will make your life so much easier. And before I get to it, just a word about difficulty. Many screenwriting books seem to want to make screenwriting hard – and…