Screenwriter Blog Posts

Elements of Great Screenwriting

To be a real contender in Hollywood, you must study the craft of screenwriting so that your scripts are the best they can be when ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

Is It Better To Market Your Script to Producers, Literary Agents, or Literary Managers First?

Screenwriters often hear “You need to get an agent to sell your screenplay. That’s the only way it will happen.” And because they hear that, ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

Is Your Screenwriting Too “On-The-Nose”

However, if any of those are the themes, it is too “on-the-nose,” as we call it, meaning there’s no subtlety. When something is a bit ...

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

Planning for Success in Screenwriting: Actions (Part 2 of 2)

As I covered in Part 1 of Success in Screenwriting, there are two types of goals: 1. Results Goals: These are the final results 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

The Power of Persistence: Should You Give Yourself a Do It By or Quit Date?

One of the interesting comments I hear from time to time is that a writer is giving their screenwriting career another year or two to ...

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

How To Write a Good Screenplay: 3 Key Objectives For Every Scene

https://youtu.be/5rR_kFsjeR4 When writing a screenplay, many screenwriters want to hurry and get their first draft on the page without doing a lot of planning because just ...

Written by

Melody Jackson

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

How To Make An Audience Care About Your Characters

John Truby believes that focusing on details and character traits can lead to superficial characters. Melody Jackson, Ph.D. does, too. Go here to Learn what ...

Written by

Melody Jackson