I’ve expressed concern about the screenplay-ization of movies, but now I’d like to express concern about a trend that very anti-cinematic:...

Everybody dreams of writing a series. It seems like every manuscript has a subtitle: Book One in the Flizzbozz Quartet. And why not? Ser...

Last time, I stated my preference for past-tense prose, but acknowledged that present-tense prose is increasingly more common and it’s he...

Novelists become more and more like screenwriters every year, and I’m not sure exactly why that is. I guess that it’s because everybody i...

I read a lot of Middle Grade novels, which are basically books about 8-13 year olds, and lots of YA, which is 14-18. (Of course, the age ...

 When we pick up a book, we start reading it provisionally , wondering, “Am I actually going to read this whole damn thing?” And our answ...

It’s always good to introduce your hero doing something active. If this takes the form of a physical competition, or even just hitting on...

A character enters the room. You write, “The door opens. Everybody turns to look. In steps a quietly commanding figure, Sergeant Elias ...

 This is a rule that James mentioned in our sixth podcast, and I thought I should give it its own post. In Raiders of the Lost Ark , I...

The Secrets of Story Podcast · Episode 6: Raiders of the Story Circle Hey guys, it’s been a long time since we put up a new podcast episod...

Hi guys, new content resumes tomorrow!

Our final TV show archive!  Thanks for putting up with me as I archive all these old posts.  The upside is that I didn’t take the summer o...

A brilliant show. The Ultimate Pilot Story Checklist: Transparent Straying from the Party Line: Transparent and the New Reality of Stre...

 Lots of good stuff here, especially the Masterful Weave breakdown. The Ultimate Pilot Checklist: The Sopranos Rulebook Casefile: The ...

A great pilot that’s worth studying. The Ultimate Pilot Story Checklist: Scandal Rulebook Casefile: Swiftly Differentiating the Ensembl...

I had a lot to say about what this show does wrong and what it does right. The Ultimate Pilot Story Checklist: Modern Family Straying f...

My all-time favorite show.  I miss it badly. The Ultimate TV Pilot Checklist: Mad Men Straying from the Party Line: “Mad Men” Rulebook...

Yes, I wrote all these before the finale but I’d do it all over again because I thought the finale was brilliant, heartbreaking, honest TV...

How many of these people are starring in their own shows right now?  (I guess Joel McHale and Danny Pudi’s new shows just got cancelled, b...

This was one of the first ones I did, back when I didn’t do as many posts about each one.  I should go back and add some more at some poin...