From the category archives:

Writing Your Screenplay

Screenplay format

November 23, 2011

I get a lot of questions about proper screenplay format. So I thought I’d write up a post which can help with the vast majority of these questions. In general, you’re best bet for understanding screenplay formatting is to read a ton of screenplays by professional screenwriters. There are lots of places to find online [...]

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I think someone stole my story idea!

September 7, 2011

I got this question recently: “Years ago I took a screenwriting class at a community college. I wrote a synopsis and 30 pages of my screenplay. As students of the class we had to share our stories with the teacher and with each other for critique and advice. My story was very personal and unique, [...]

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The Hero’s Flaw and Your Story

August 3, 2011

This post was guest written by Script Quack. They offer professional script analysis and are currently giving readers of SellingYourScreenplay.com a special discount. Just enter the discount code “sellingyourscreenplay” (without the quotes) on the discount page which can be found here: http://www.scriptquack.com/discountpage.html We’re going to get into a lot of trouble for this one, because [...]

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The Magic of A Reading

May 25, 2011

This post was written by Jackie Wolf-Enrione. She’s a journalist and screenwriter. She’s sent in a few questions and she told me about an upcoming reading of her screenplay. I asked if she’d write up a blog post about her experience with the read and she generously agreed. If you read this blog regularly you’ll [...]

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How to Recognize and Correct Overwriting in Your Screenplay

March 16, 2011

This post was guest written by Script Quack. They offer professional script analysis and are currently giving readers of SellingYourScreenplay.com a special discount. Just enter the discount code “sellingyourscreenplay” (without the quotes) on the discount page which can be found here: http://www.scriptquack.com/discountpage.html At Script Quack Script Analysis, we see plenty of screenplays each month. Our [...]

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Do I need permission to use a song in my screenplay?

September 15, 2010

I got this question recently: “Can you tell me if I need a permission to use songs in my script? I would like to use a song while opening credits are shown and another song of the same artist in the end of the movie. Do I need to contact her to get her permission [...]

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Finding an idea for a script

September 30, 2009

If you’re like me you’ve got dozens of seemingly “great” screenplay ideas floating around in your head.  But how do you narrow your ideas down and figure out which ones are worth investing the time and energy to turn into a complete screenplay? My writing partner, Nathan Ives, and I are close to finishing a [...]

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Script Consultants

May 19, 2009

Should you pay a script consultant to read and review your screenplay? Up until a couple of weeks ago I had never used any paid script consultant services.  If you read my blog you’ll know I’m a big proponent of moving to Los Angeles if you’re serious about screenwriting.  One of the reasons to live [...]

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Getting through the dip and getting your screenplay written

February 11, 2009

Nathan Ives and I are working on a new script. I’ll spare you the boring details about the plot, structure, and character – yeah, we got all those things. Right now we’re almost done a very rough draft. And I mean really rough draft. We’ve been working on it for several months. In its current [...]

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