Category: screenwriting

Larry Brody’s TV Writing Tips & Tricks #3

Scene Construction
by Larry Brody

Scenes are more than a signposts on your way to the end of the screenplay road. They’re more than just moments in which story or character points are thrown out at the viewer or reader. A good scene in a screen or teleplay—and by good I mean EFFECTIVE in terms of getting the response you want—is a mini-story in itself, with a beginning, middle, and end.

In other words, scenes need to be structured so that the intensity within them grows and then climaxes, like microcosms of your script. read article

How Professional Screenwriters Outline

Old showbiz saying: “If you have the chance to post a video with distinguished and Oscar winning writers saying the same thing you always say, DO IT! So:

More Behind the Curtain

Larry Brody: Make Your Scenes Flow

Larry Brody’s TV Writing Tips & Tricks #2
by Larry Brody

Over my years running various TV series I’ve been amazed at how many professional writers don’t understand the basics of good storytelling. In a nutshell, the trick to working out your plot is to always remember that the scenes must flow from and to each other in a progression that takes into account three different elements. That is, it must be logical, surprising, and climactic.

What this means is that everything that happens must grow out of what happened before. On one level, given the personalities of the characters and the situation they are in, each plot point must be inevitable. And on another level, these inevitable twists and turns must be such that the reader or viewer could never have predicted them. read article

Writers Roundtable: Jordan Peele, Darren Aronofsky, Emily V. Gordon et.al.

The writers of Get Out, Darkest Hour, Molly’s Game, In the Fade, The Big Sick and ‘mother! get together to educated, entertain, and dish for The Hollywood Reporter.

Hie thyself to THR’s YouTube Channel for more edification and shooting of the shit!

Larry Brody’s TV Writing Tips & Tricks #1

Outlining & Writer’s Block
by Larry Brody

One of the big differences between beginning writers and “old pros” is that beginning writers are always telling me how much they love sitting down at the keyboard and “winging” their scripts, while the pros invariably stress the importance of having a good outline before they start writing.

As an “elder statesman” myself, I’ve tried both methods, and outlining your story is the way to go. In television we spend as much time on the outline as we do on all drafts of the script combined. read article