Screenwriter Blog Posts

Script Sculpting Hacks: How To Shorten Your Script While Improving the Quality

The first thing a Hollywood exec/reader does when they get your screenplay is to look to the last page and see how many pages they ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

The Business of Screenplay Marketing

Some of the persistent complaints I hear from screenwriters are that they don’t like to market their scripts, they don’t know what to do next, ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

What Is a Film Treatment and 7 Awesome Reasons To Write One

So many ideas…. so little time to write whole screenplays. It’s far easier to write a film treatment than an entire screenplay since it’s only ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

How To Write a Treatment For Your Screenplay: 7 Critical Tips

Previously I wrote about the great benefits of writing treatments for your screenplays instead of jumping directly into writing the scenes themselves. In case you ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

Mission Critical Script Formatting: 7 Keys to Make Sure Your Screenplay is Properly Formatted Before Sending It Out

Mission Critical: 7 Keys to Make Sure Your Screenplay is Properly Formatted Before Sending It Out When it comes to getting your screenplay noticed by ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

Should I Put 1 or 2 Spaces Between Sentences?

In dialogue, how many spaces between sentences? Are there 2 blank spaces between the period and the next sentence? Or 1 blank space? Actually, Guy, it’s ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

Do I Have To Live in Los Angeles to Sell a Screenplay?

This question seems to be a reoccurring question asked by many writers who are trying to sell a screenplay. The answer is simple; no you ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

Screenwriting Contests: 5 Ways to Use Them In Your Career

When it comes to contests, you may have noticed that there are countless screenwriting contests or script competitions that promise a great deal about the ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

Do You Have a Hook In Your Screenplay Logline?

When you pitch your screenplay to a Hollywood executive, whether in a one-on-one pitch in person or in a query letter, your story needs to ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

WGA Agents List — Writers Guild Of America List of Agents Review

Screenwriters sometimes ask me what I think about approaching the WGA West Literary Agents as a possible way to obtain representation. Theoretically, it's a good ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

Interest A Star With A Great Character Arc

A great Character Arc not only makes a story work, but it’s “acting bait” for a movie star. Every action your main character takes should be toward ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

Networking in Hollywood Like the Girl with the Extraordinarily Long Arm

You’ve probably have heard that you need to schmooze in Hollywood, and sometimes hearing this makes actors shudder because they feel it means they need ...

Written by

Melody Jackson