Happy 4th Anniversary UNK

“Unk was my inspiration to blog. So blame him.” Mystery Man on Film Way back in June of 2006 I’m not even sure I had indoor plumbing yet. My cell phone looked like Gordo Gekko’s. Some of you weren’t even born yet. Yes, four years is a long time in this new digital world. But [...]

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Creating “The Wonder Years”

”If you don’t have any real feeling for the suburban middle-class life, and if you didn’t have any sense of that time, (The Wonder Years) wouldn’t make sense.”‘ Neal Marlens Co-creator of The Wonder Years (set in the late 60s/early 70s) I’ve finally decided what I’d like for my birthday this year—a complete Blu-Ray set [...]

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Rock, Paper, Scissors & Screenwriting

The origins of the classic hand game “Rock, Paper, Scissors” are unknown. But what is known is its popularity is undisputed and universal. There are even RPS contests and leagues around the world.  In fact, the World RPS Society has cash prizes and a world champion every year. Online you can find all kinds of [...]

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Writing Quote #14 (Wallace Stegner)

“I really do believe that chance favours a prepared mind. Wallace Stegner, who was one of my teachers when I was at Stanford, preached that writing a novel is not something that can be done in a sprint. That it’s a marathon. You have to pace yourself. He himself wrote two pages every day and [...]

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Rewriting Courtroom Drama

“People who succeed in the arts most often are the people who get up again after getting knocked down. Persistence is critical.” Scott Turow “I used to write on the morning commuter train. It was sometimes no more than a paragraph a day, but it kept the candle burning.” Scott Turow It took Scott Turow [...]

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Writing Quote #13 (Julia Cameron)

“The ‘if-I-had-time’ lie is a convenient way to ignore the fact that novels require being written and that writing happens a sentence at a time. Sentences can happen in a moment. Enough stolen moments, enough stolen sentences, and a novel is born—without the luxury of time. Lawyer Scott Turow wrote his riveting novel Presumed Innocent* [...]

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The First Black Feature Filmmaker

“One of the greatest tasks of my life has been to teach that the colored man can be anything,” Filmmaker Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951) On Tuesday, the United States Postal Service released a stamp of producer, director, screenwriter Oscar Micheaux. This is significant for several reasons. First it shows that long before Tyler Perry and Spike Lee, [...]

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Writing Subtext (Tip #43)

“Subtext is what the character is really saying beneath and between the lines. Often characters don’t understand themselves. They’re often not direct and don’t say what they mean. We might say that subtext is all about underlying drives and meanings that are not apparent to the character, but that are apparent to the audience or [...]

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Screenwriting’s Biggest Flirt

“The fact is, when I wrote Juno—and I think this is part of its charm and appeal—I didn’t know how to write a movie.” Diablo Cody Today marks the two and a half-year anniversary of starting this blog— Screenwriting from Iowa. A blog that got its start after seeing the movie Juno and reading the articles about [...]

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The Lucky Slob from Ohio

“His ears are too big and he looks like an ape.” Darryl Zanuck on Clark Gable’s screen test “He was to the American motion picture what Ernest Hemingway is to American Literature.” 1960 Time magazine on Gable’s death Before he was called “The King of Hollywood,” and long before he uttered the famous words in [...]

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