We should stop telling students and emerging writers that the passive voice is some sort of mortal sin in texts. It is not. Sometimes, the passive voice offers the best way to control what a reader perceives as important. Consider the following reasons to use passive voice: 1. Technical manuals.…
Category: Writing
Comments and suggestions on writing.
An email exchange brought something into focus that I want to stress to all screenwriters and novelists hoping to pitch a film, series, or novel. A story needs to be unusual, yet obvious. The audience should anticipate some, but not all, of the conflicts and the outline of the story…
“I’m making a movie about a young filmmaker.” “My new play is about a struggling playwright in New York City.” “I’ve written a great book about a romance writer.” And then we have… “My new screenplay is about a playwright….” STOP IT. Please. Stop writing about being a writer and…
Recently, I met with screenwriting coach Jim Mercurio to discuss some ideas and screenplays I was trying to pitch. Jim is a wonderful, highly ranked writing coach and former columnist for Creative Screenwriting. He knows writing and he knows Hollywood. He told me right up front, this is going to be…
“This story is a movie. That other story needs to be a novel.” One of my pet peeves is the common assumption among writers that particular types of stories are best suited to a single medium. This assumption belies either a lack of skill or a lack of understanding and…
As a playwright, I am accustomed to “directing” the action. One of the attractions of writing for the stage is the primacy of the script, as submitted by the writer to a director. Changes require the approval of the playwright, and well-known playwrights have challenged directors who felt the need…
Part One of “Your Script is a Snitch” explained how your script is snitching on you before the reader opens or scrolls to page one. Now, let’s examine what your script says to readers as they skim the pages of your screen gem. The message might not be the one…
Your script is a snitch. It’s telling readers all about you, and what it is saying might work against you. Some questions that readers evaluating a script will ask themselves can help you prepare and deliver a script with a better chance of being taken seriously. How did the script…
“I have been working on the screenplay for 10 years.” Few screenwriters and playwrights earn a living, and even fewer do so with only one or two produced works. To make writing a career, you must be receiving residuals and royalties from a larger collection of works that are being…
When someone casually states, as if revealing a deep and universal truth, that writing is a (take your pick) business or art form or craft, I shake my head and attempt to move far away from the wise sage and the lecture that is about to begin. What is meant…