Hey, it's Naomi with your weekly screenwriting memo! Today's topic... Your story needs consequences, not more plot One of the questions writers ask themselves all the time is: What should happen next? But sometimes, especially when you're feeling stuck, a better question might be: What's already been set in motion? Because the events of your screenplay shouldn't just happen and then disappear behind you. They should cause something. Your protagonist makes a choice. That choice triggers...
10 days ago • 4 min read
Hey, it's Naomi with your weekly screenwriting memo! Today's topic... In the Q&A after last week’s Conflict workshop — available here if you missed it — the topic of rewriting strategies came up and inspired me to send today’s article. And since I’ve been thinking about making November’s workshop a practical guide to creating a rewrite plan, I’d love to hear if that’s something you’d be interested in, or if there are other screenwriting-related topics you’d like to see us cover. 😊 A master...
17 days ago • 7 min read
Last call for Sunday's Conflict That Carries the Movie workshop! 😊 Hey, it's Naomi with your weekly screenwriting memo! Today's topic... The two ways romance creates conflict in a romcom In a lot of genres, the source of conflict is obvious. Someone wants to kill your protagonist. Someone wants to conquer the kingdom. Someone wants to steal the diamonds. But in a romcom, you often have two people who, deep down, would be genuinely happy together — so what, exactly, is stopping them? The...
24 days ago • 5 min read
Hey, it's Naomi with your weekly screenwriting memo! Today's topic... 3 places to discover Theme in your screenplay When a typical viewer watches your movie, they’re not consciously looking for the theme. They’re simply enjoying the experience, the genre entertainment, and how it makes them feel. But… if that’s true and no one is paying attention to theme, then why should screenwriters even bother with it? While the audience may not be consciously aware of it, they are absorbing the theme....
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Hey, it's Naomi with your weekly screenwriting memo! Today's topic... Make your dialogue sound like your character If you’ve been watching the new season of Reacher, you may have noticed something interesting about Reacher's dialogue: he treats most conversations like a sparring match. He's always paying attention to the other person's move, clocking what they've revealed, and looking for an opening. When someone asks him a question, he doesn't automatically answer it. He decides whether he...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read