We all had it — the kids’ table at Thanksgiving. And at that table staged dramas worthy of Westeros itself: one kid was angling to join the grown up table, another was furious that he didn’t get as much stuffing as his sister, someone else felt it important that we all hear the Thanksgiving song […]
So often the ends of our shows and movies are the culmination of a dream — the protagonist wins, gets what she wants, end-film. Well that’s unrealistic, isn’t it? We’ve seen a counter-movement where, at the end, our protagonist doesn’t get what she wants — and that’s interesting, but let’s try another ending entirely: It […]
First, happy NANOWRIMO to anyone participating! Hopefully you can use today’s exercise in your writing somehow. This week, we’re embracing the prose-writing-format because …well, it’s NaNo! The first frost of a year was traditionally the region’s first collective breath hold. Crops are brought in, anything still outside would likely not make it; the fast-paced autumnal […]
My birthday is right before Halloween. As a kid, I always had Halloween themed birthday parties, so today we’re going to write about a haunted birthday party. Really this is about building a world: draw us into the creepy party by creating a surrogate character. A surrogate character is someone who steps in for the […]
Let’s write a science fiction horror today! In the vein of Frankenstein, for example, we’re going to cultivate not just some scifi but also a terrifying peek into the human condition. So in order to do that, you’re going to need a main character with an alarming character flaw — hubris, for example, if we’re […]
Working to create a suspenseful story is very different than creating one with jump scares. In requires careful pacing, which is what we are going to play with today! Something we worked on last time was raising the stakes, which is going to come in handy here. Write a short (less than 10 pages) scene […]
This week I would like to explore raising the stakes in our scenes. For today’s prompt, you are going to craft a scene that raises the problem every five lines. So what that means is that every five lines, your characters are in even more peril than they were before. That could mean, for example, […]
Write your own Onion-style article today — that’s right, we’re veering from screenwriting for one week! Take a trip over to a reputed news source and find a headline that speaks to you. It could be a huge global event or just a local announcement. See if you can take it to ridiculous stakes (think […]
Today, I want to explore going beyond the outrage and finding our empathy via creativity. The nature of social media and clickbait is that they encourage us to see one direction. No matter which way you politically lean, it’s easy to retweet an image with outrage. It’s harder to ask why something is so. So […]
Next week is a prompt from one of YOU for me! If you’re a member of my Patron family, submit your prompt to me via Discord so I can get it up! Just a reminder… For these prompts, I personally place an emphasis on film or play writing — but anything goes. Use these to […]