Posts by Amadeus
First, good for you, it is a good sign that you aren't feeling compelled to describe characters. To me, physical descriptions stalls the story, it is a lot of "telling", not showing. I always avoi...
Most of us have answered to different names at various points in our lives. Why We Have Multiple Names Take my nephew's name; Robert. Robert is his formal legal name. A common nickname for Rober...
If the female enemy is immature, make the male be emotionally more of an adult, even though they are about the same age. He is merciful; despite her apparent anger or hatred. Invent a situation in ...
Sorry, you simply do not do this. Your script is a blueprint for the director to build a house; the blueprint doesn't contain instructions on painting and decorating the house. The director will ...
+1 Cyn, however, typically you use a designation (Woman #1, Cop #1, Kid #1) and always number sequentially from 1, using '#', and don't not use random numbers like 5 or 9. If you want to be specifi...
Obviously you have to read, but you don't have to read a LOT. The lessons for writing are distilled into non-fiction books on writing, usually by authors of multiple best-sellers. It is actually ...
After CUT TO: the next scene heading should be on its own line. CUT TO: INT. GREENHOUSE - DAY (PRE-RECORDED) I'd sa...
You format it with tags, it won't interrupt the flow. "What?!" Marcia said. I laughed, giving her a minute to process my words. "You're getting married?" she said. "I never thought I'...
I believe you have to explain it, somehow. There is nothing worse than an unexplained major action that determines the outcome of the story, especially when the outcome is sad. It seems arbitrary a...
Why this is difficult. Jealousy is a natural trait, nearly everyone that falls in love is subject to it at some time. The reason is that the extremely high emotional value of the love interest cre...
+1, Wetcircuit, though I will disagree on the Buffy angle; she is right on the misdirection. This is difficult to pull off. The way I would do it is a little "close up magic"; you have to write fr...
You could play them as opposites. He hardly talks at all, she talks enough for both of them! She is not unaware or oblivious to him, but she just chatters along, asking him questions that he doesn...
In your particular circumstance: No. That is not normal. If I am given something to provide feedback, then I will read it all; OR I will read it all until I have seen enough to not bother reading ...
I think the tropes are galloping horse, convenient boarding point, leaping from horse to train (and horse then veering off), a harrowing dangerous trip across the top of the train to get to the eng...
I used cleaned up speech; but I only use words I have actually heard people use in casual speech (or at least feel like I have heard used). I think the trick is to stick with things real people sa...
I have both a resume and a CV; I am a research scientist with a PhD and two Master's degrees. Both a resume and a CV are telling a prospective employer what you can do for them, and how you can be...
+1 DPT, yes your characters should be interacting with the setting. If the "entire thing could have been a phone call", I'd say you have a problem with the dialogue, and the character emotions. D...
I've been a professional programmer for 40 years, I've written everything from operating systems to business app code to games, and I never use an exclamation point in business or OS code. Ever. No...
+1 Galastel; I would say one way to approach an answer to her question, "What is the meaning of your story", is to ask yourself What do my characters learn? Deep stories, at least by my definition...
Heroes Have Consequences. Heroes cause major changes, and every major change is likely to be negative for somebody, and often that person is an innocent. No matter what the setting, defeating evil...
Make Beowulf more complex, which was your goal anyway. Consider Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) on NCIS. The ultimate cop: But he isn't. When his wife and child were murdered by a drug dealer, and the ...
The technical term I have heard in writing is resonance. In psychology, we would call it priming of the audience. As you say, it isn't exactly foreshadowing, but it puts an image into the reader/v...
Switch the bravery. For this scene, her love interest is the brave one. As always, create a conflict between them. First draft of a long example: Marcie heard something, a gasp, and moved to th...
Being upfront is about telling the truth, and unwilling to tell a white lie to preserve somebody's feelings. Being a jerk is about being selfish and uncaring. They don't give a shit about anybody...
As Galastel says (+1), your character needs to be involved and want something connected to the problem. If the empire has become an engine of conquest, perhaps your character is in danger of bein...
