Do’s and don’ts of submitting to agents
Crime writer Dominique Hall has written to me for advice on sending a novel to an agent. She says: I am at the stage of approaching agents as I have written a crime novel, and…
7 steps that make a satisfying ending
In 2000 the movie What Lies Beneath opened to mixed reviews. Despite a strong opening, cast (Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer) and director (Robert Zemeckis), reviewers talked of its “decomposing script” and said it “ran off…
How the gurus who teach “show don’t tell” could ruin your treatment
All screenwriting gurus teach “Show don’t tell” – it’s one of the few things they all agree on. How can it possibly be bad? And yet, what they don’t tell you is sticking to “show…
The biggest synopsis mistake that writers make
I see hundreds of treatments and synopses and most have clearly been slaved over by their writers, but there are still half a dozen major mistakes that sabotage them, no matter how good they are…
Four simple steps for writing a gripping treatment
Do you find it difficult to structure a treatmentso that it grips the reader as strongly as the full script? Join the club. I don’t think any writer enjoys distilling their exquisitely crafted scripts down…
Treatment writing tip: It’s not how much, it’s how little!
OK, let’s face it, it can be tough writing a good treatment, cramming all the important events in a 99-120 page screenplay into a fraction of that length. But the point of a treatment is…
Write with conviction in 2013
The writers and filmmakers who work with determined conviction are the ones who will succeed in this industry.
Six Things You Need To Know About Treatments
If you want to write for film or TV, then treatments, outlines, synopses (the terms are interchangeable in the industry) are something you have to get good at. And to write good treatments there are…
How you can use not knowing to write better scripts
The strange realisation hit me the other day: the more I write, the less sure I become about all my theories about writing. One day, with luck, I’ll be sure about nothing at all. This…
Three Tips for Writing Treatments
Writing a good, compelling, readable treatment is tough. It’s difficult enough to write a script – but then to boil the whole thing down from 90+ pages to one or two…! However it’s a crucial…
How to land a top star and the BBC with one treatment
Most people hate writing treatments. Not me, I love them. This is how I used a treatment to hook a top star comedian and the BBC in just five pages – and how you can…
How long should your treatment be?
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?
Get it rite, not written
Most people understand if a few typos or stylistic solecisms slip through in an email or (perish the thought) in a blog post. These are informal media. But a treatment or script is different. Unlike…
Multitasking
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…
Want to enjoy writing treatments – find your voice
It’s true screenplays don’t offer a great variety of style or voice – but that doesn’t apply to treatments, synopses and outlines. There are far fewer style rules for such outlines of your story.
Write treatments with style
I’ve written before that good screenwriters often get tangled up writing treatments. One major reason is that they are simply using the wrong style.
Writing Treatments – Get Out Of First Gear
Treatments are essential both for developing and for marketing your scripts – and yet many good screenwriters fail to write good treatments. It took me a long time to realise why.