Scream Writing

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...

Good fiction and film requires conflict. And usually when we’re talking about genre, that conflict often includes violence and some amount of blood. How you depict gore in your work is all about managing...

When it comes to learning screenwriting, it never hurts to actually listen to the screenwriters rather than the directors. Seems logical, but some people get caught up in the auteur theory instead of going...

Welcome back, my Scream Writers. This week’s article was originally going to cover another screenplay—one that I will leave unnamed. However, when I had found myself making up excuses to avoid reading what I...

If you're anything like me, you've read enough advice or listened to enough interviews to know that one the best ways to improve as a screenwriter is to read screenplays. It seems to easy...

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...

Welcome to the very first Scream Writing, your one stop shop for advice on writing the horror screenplay. Today we’re going to be talking about 2015’s, filmed in Canada, The Blackcoat’s Daughter (original: February); directed...

There is a notion of the kick ass woman. She is strong, perhaps even muscular. She is a natural leader, tough, and quick-thinking. We’ve seen her in movies like Alien (1979) and Resident Evil (2002). I’ve never...

‘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...