Making Sense in the Horror Genre
What is reality, anyways?
Of all the writing “rules” that the horror genre gets to play around with – see, Break – this is my favorite: Things don’t need to make sense. Now, before you...
Scream Writing Questions with Michael J. Kospiah
This week we got to talk to Michael J. Kospiah about Scream Writing and the importance of not being afraid to write shitty. Writing is rewriting, as the saying goes (and Kospiah elaborates), so...
The Horror of Connotation
While I make it my domain to help screenwriters professionally, both through script consultations and one-on-one mentoring, it is my goal to provide my fellow Scream Writers with as many free tools to advance...
Reasoning with the Unreasonable in No Country for Old Men
Horror, deep in its dark heart, is about forcing characters to confront the unimaginable: the killer with a knife, the book that raises the dead, the alien life-form that shouldn't exist, the haunted house...
Scream Writing Questions with Adam Marcus
We're talked to a lot of great people on Scream Writing Questions but this is the first time that I've been so excited to talk to someone that I'm at a loss for words. Adam...
Scream Writing Questions with Chance Shirley
When it comes to horror, it's surprising just how well it meshes with comedy. Perhaps no one knows that better than Chance Shirley, writer/director on For a Few Zombies More (2015) and Hide and Creep (2004).
What...
Scream Writing Questions with David J. Stieve
This Scream Writing Questions post should have been up two years ago but somehow it managed to slip through the cracks of email, a damned shame considering that David J. Stieve wrote one of...
Seven Ways to Make a Great First Impression
The most deluded thing a writer can tell a prospective publisher about their recently finished manuscript is that “it gets better as it goes.” That may well be true but if you’re saying that...
Using Letterboxd as a Tool for Research, Collaboration and Fun
I’m almost done writing Scream Writing: A Comprehensive Guide to Writing the Horror Screenplay and that means I’m beginning to gear up research on my second book, Mindfulness at the Movies: A Cinephile’s Guide...
An Apocalypse of Our Own Design; or, Designing the Apocalypse.
In years past, apocalyptic scenarios were most commonly seen in cult classics and midnight drive-in movies. These pieces of art could be incredibly influential, sure, but they stood out amongst a crowd of other...
Scream Writing Questions with Larissa Thomas
Let's kick off this week's Scream Writing Questions with an episode of Larissa Thomas and Alicia Faucher's delightful web series Allie & Lara Make a Horror Movie to get a taste of the fun to be...
Deliberate Practice: A Neuroscience Informed Screenwriting Lesson
This week’s Scream Writing is going to be a little bit different. If you follow me on Twitter, then you know that I’m a big fan not just of horror movies and screenwriting but...
An Interview with Author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
Welcome back, Scream Scholars. As a part of our continuing education in horror, it only makes sense to reach out to academics who have spent far more time than us considering the genre. It...
Reclaiming “Write What You Know”
‘Write What You Know’ is one of the oldest pieces of writing advice around. Even folks who’ve never even planned to write a book have heard that bit of ageless wisdom. Where did it...
Restricted Point of View in The Invitation
Question Scream Writers: What do Shutter Island (2010), Memento (2000), and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) all have in common?
Answer: Each of these films make good use of an “Unreliable Narrator.” That is,...
Using Decay to Develop Your Characters and Worlds
A bullet might be the fastest way to develop character (or end it). Similarly, dropping a bomb on a city is the most surefire way to change the landscape of a fictional world. But...
Scream Writing Questions with Andrew Bellware
This week Scriptophobic is joined by Andrew Bellware to answer some Scream Writing Questions, explore the art of screenwriting, and dig into the love of sci-fi and genre.
What first got you interested in screenwriting?
I first...
Motivation and Stakes in Jaws, Death Spa, and Blue Monkey
If after the first kill in Jaws, the mayor agreed that there was clearly a shark problem and acted fast to get rid of it, then would there still be a movie? Maybe a...
Character Arcs: Are They Necessary?
If you take any Writing 101 course then you will be familiar with the importance of character arcs to fiction. Prose fiction has always been regarded as having quite a bit of leeway when...
Connecting with Technology
“We lived on farms, then we lived in cities, and now we're going to live on the internet!” – The Social Network (2010)
Something I like thinking about is how many classic film plots might’ve...
Write What Scares You? Write What You Damn Well Want!
Kelly Warner, author of the post-apocalyptic kaiju trilogy In the Shadow of Extinction, wrote about how he feels the advice “write what you know” often gets misinterpreted. I believe a similar piece of writing...
The Embodiment of Death in No Country for Old Men (2007)
There’s a moment in No Country for Old Men (2007) where Llewelyn (Josh Brolin) checks into a motel while trying to stay one step ahead of the hounds that are nipping at his heels....
Scream Writing Questions with B. Harrison Smith
Write, write, write. Scream Writer Harrison Smith boils down his advice until there's no fat left on the bone – just like if it were a screenplay! Today, the writer/director joins Scriptophobic to talk about...
An Interview with Video Palace’s Ben Rock and Bob DeRosa
Gathering around the campfire and telling ghost stories is such a powerful image of how we share our mythologies that John Carpenter used it to open The Fog (1980). Often we forget that there...
Choosing a Victim: Houses, Feasts, Blobs and Dead Kids
One topic that doesn’t come up often in discussions on writing horror is the importance of the victims themselves. There is plenty of writing on characters, but most of the victims in horror aren’t...