Screenwriting

I found that sometimes taking walk helps. I spend hours barely writing, then I step away from the computer for a walk or even for the nght and and boom! There's that solution I was lookong for or a workable idea for a scene. So I've weaned into cycling tasks so as not to get stuck on one.

Writer's block is my cue to live my life, so I second stepping away for a while from writing. Gotta recharge those energies to do it justice!

Or work on different projects. Sometimes, working on a set helping others is an immense help!!

I sometimes consider writer’s block a sign from the universe that you’re supposed to be working on something else because I don’t really get it when it’s a project I’m passionate about the characters are always trying to say something in my mind. I only lock up when it’s a plot point that I feel could be better and it’s like I’m trying to solve it. So I think passion can lead you through the block and if it’s there, the passion is somewhere else at least for the moment.

Taking a break helps me beat writer’s blocks too, Kenneth Tisdale. I also like to reread my outline to figure out things or write random scenes.

Please do let me know if I can’t ask that here. I’m still navigating everything here hahaha

Simplyscripts is another place for that as well if you don’t have any luck here.

Grant “Wiggy” Wiggins Thanks so much! And thank you for checking it out.

Love On The Weekend-

Overdue for the much anticipated get away with his girlfriend, Mark an overworked Consultant, arrives at the cabin to discover her gone. Mysterious events and danger lurk around every corner as every clue found leads to more questions. In a race against time, Mark must exhaust all resources in order to find his girlfriend before it's too late.

-The fireplace and candles suggest she was recently there

-he';ll find blood

-a strange voicemail

-in his quest, he'll encounter dangerous wildlife, high elevation, a suspicious woodsman

Theme: How far we'll go to protect those we love

Newlyweds have a self catering honeymoon in middle class America and on Halloween the happy wife eats supper alone, unaware the rental agent is a cannibal from the deep South.

Libby Wright Thank you Libby

Ghost Hotel. Logline: You have to be seen to be believed.

Wow-these are so amazing!! Thanks for playing, everyone!!

when using AI programs like ChatGPT, you need to keep in mind that you and everything you create are the product. they will mine you, your thoughts, and your data all the way to the limits programmatically possible. AI is fine for organization, but the more info you pump into it, the more it will be used to exploit you in lot of ways in the future. the lessons of the social media boom should not be forgotten. when it comes to tech companies, you are always the product.

A great tool, but you have to be creative to write out the stories though.

ChatGPT is excellent for lots of work but not writing scripts for you. And you cannot copyright a script made with AI. That may change in the future. For now it’s a no.

The reason why it’s not valuable for scriptwriting is because AI is not a human being. Therefore it is not a replacement for your own creativity and unique pov for writing. It doesn’t have your life experience or skills or memories. Or any life skills or memories.

It’s just data.

Whatever others have said or done that’s been input.

It’s not you and your special way of thinking or talking or writing.

The value for writers is it’s ready to assist you 24/7/365.

When you’re up at 2am it can act as an assistant creating outlines, organizing, bullet-pointing, summarizing…very quickly to save you time.

And get your mind settled so you can sleep!

It’s good for visualizing characters and world. (Midjourney).

It’s good for pitch deck images when you need a specific character or style like surreal or retro. (Canva + Midjourney)

It is also a quick fun way to get an idea of what your dialogue can sound like when you can’t find readers. Or the music you might want to use. (Elevenlabs and Suno)

Some thoughts for you Tom DeLong .

Tom DeLong Maurice has got things covered. Thanks

Just write your own story because the thing is, you’re gonna have to double check everything ChatGPT did anyway. Which is basically the same grind as if you had written it yourself in the first place without the same satisfaction.

I’ll only use my recent script Borogove as an example. Almost 3 years of work, while I worked on others, the euphoria of the ceiling that came with finally pushing that thing out of my consciousness on my own was indescribable. Even more so when it started getting great feedback. You’ll miss out on that if you let an AI accomplish your accomplishment. Because that’s your unique gift to the ages.

Definitely sounds interesting.

@Edward I used to feel overloaded, too many projects, & too little time. I’d grapple with the cause of my angst cos the continuity seemed overwhelming. Then I realised I’m hard wired as an artist, for thoughts to continuously flow, even at the back of my mind when socialising. There is always a surplus, instead of trying to juggle, I now merely pencil them in a notebook for another day.

Edward Ybarra, as an ex-manager used to tell me when I became overloaded: "It's a good problem to have." ;-) All the best, ---Brian

This really enourages me!

I also find myself in that same situation, but basically I just take it one at a time. If I have ideas for the others, it goes to my outline.

The one that calls you the most is the one I tend to focus on. Because you start to realize trying to juggle too many, just serves none of them and i’ll lock in day and night to get that specific one done. Then you can give mental bandwidth to others. Just keeping blinders on until its’ their turn. As the good ideas don’t slip away they just hover around your mental atmosphere.

Maurice Vaughan. Haha, fingers crossed — by Stage 28, it’ll be our very own Star Wars.

Elle Bolan, your stages are beautiful — prose and poetry…

It made me think:

autumn is perfect for writing poems beneath falling leaves,

summer — for fast-paced screenplays on the move,

and winter — for long, quiet nature descriptions by candlelight.

That’s a kind of structure too.

I hope you and your Stage 8 make peace someday.

I’ve recently found myself truly enjoying the act of writing scenes:

listening to the wind inside a scene,

watching how the light falls,

noticing what sticks to a character’s shoe.

Maybe Stage 8 isn’t purgatory at all —

maybe it’s a porch.

A quiet “in‑between,” right before the leap.

David Austin Veal. Your stages are such a delight. Snacks, meditation, morning coffee, and driving — wonderful creative hacks. And the way you describe your writing process feels like music: rhythm, family, stories that shape themselves. Truly inspiring!

Stay alive in writing with these hints and elevate your writing!!

Thanks Ron Reid — I’m not giving up (just) yet!

I agree. Thank you!

Wendy Kay - Michael David 's points are important. also on a more storytelling side, I would say that the most important story to come out of such an experience is not always or necessarily the story of what actually happened, if you know what I mean. So I would give myself the time and space to process that experience and see what of it 'wants' to be told - just like we often don't know that a particular song we've known for a while is actually about a very specific relationship. And sorry to hear that happened to your friend :(

change the names

I would give the betrayer an intersting story line to make sure that person does not come off as one dimensional. Why did they betray? Did they feel betrayed? What fears, insecurities, or unresolved issues drove them to act in such a way, etc. Is there a redeeming quality that person has that leaves the audience with mixed feelings?

Wow! Thank you so much for taking the time to write here. I appreciate you all for giving me such wonderful feedback and advice! I hope your weekend is going great!

I had never considered any format other than a feature film until my most recent project. After completing the first 120 pages of the draft, I realized that the story was rushed, the character development was shallow, and the full emotional impact of the act two climax was shortchanged because I had to compress too much exposition and world building into act one. If I wrote this as a pilot for an 8-part limited series, and sketched episodes 2-8 from my feature script, it solved a lot of these problems.

The decision was made based on what was best for the story, not what would engage viewer's eyeballs for the maximum amount of advertising time. My story was not open-ended in its current form. I feel it is an imposition on viewer's to demand they spend 10 hours of their lives over multiple seasons on any particular story just to optimize their monetizaton value. When I watch a multi-season series, I watch the pilot, second to last, and last episodes only, relying on the recaps to fill in the gaps. Most of the second act is padded with character arc storylines that don't contribute to the narrative drive and waste my time.

Multi-season series are also killing the development of new show runners and producers according to industry insiders. Episodic series writers used to get experience on-set and learned the show runner craft over time. Now, they are hired for a writer's room, dumped for two or more years until the next season goes into production, and then expected to drop whatever they may be doing to rejoin the show's writer's room. Most move on, causing a loss of consistency between seasons.

The latest trend to mimic the Chinese micro-drama or "vertical" fad is extremely profitable and a cultural disaster. A 90 minute low budget feature that costs $200,000 can be broken into sixty 90 second episodes at 99 cents per episode ($60) and viewed by 10 million people ($600M). These are independently produced and distributed via ReelShort, DramaBox, and GoodShort platforms.

If serialization is wasting people's lives, micro-dramas take this to a new level of brain-rot. If you want a career as a screenwriter, this is your ticket. If you care about story and craft and having an impact with your work, I would avoid this soap-opera black hole.

D A Stenard a very valid concern and happy to see you're getting some really solid viewpoints here. The format IS important and different formats allow you to come at your story in different ways - in fact, you may discover things about it that will be useful no matter what format you decide on. Also, a great story can always be adapted to other formats. I would always err on the side of seeing what the story needs, not what I want to write necessarily - 'form follows function' is a helpful standard and the generous insight from Anna Marton Henry and Pat is spot on. Look forward to seeing you rock this story! :)

D A Stenard I've written both to some degree of success and find both rewarding. The limited series is a bit more work in my opinion as mine was a lot of research on a real person

Episodic continuation is hard when big money throws the writers away.

David B. Wright Here are some stats for you to consider for micro dramas. They had a proven record of success in China. Of course, Hollywood wouldn’t be experimenting if it wasn’t seeing the dollar signs. Under the current “freemium” model of many verticals platforms, viewers can watch the first few “episodes” (often one- to three-minute segments) of a vertical for free and then can pay or watch ads to see the rest. Budgets for these projects are minuscule (generally, $100,000 to $300,000 per series), and platforms release a lot of them, experimenting to see what resonates with viewers.

According to Owl & Co, verticals are set to make more than $3 billion outside China this year. A separate analysis from SensorTower found that the U.S. is the market that generates the most revenue for verticals apps, reaching nearly $350 million in the first quarter of 2025.

The ambition for Hollywood players, essentially, is to build the Netflix for vertical video and the race is on to see who will get there first. But many open questions remain, like whether established stars and filmmaking talent will be eager to jump in.

MicroCo, which has set its sights on releasing its app in the first half of 2026, plans on keeping costs low in part by retaining the microdrama tradition of working with largely unknown actors. Its projects will be budgeted at about $100,000 to $200,000 each. “We plan to go with the old adage that TV creates stars, microdramas create stars. Did I mention our budgets?” jokes CEO Winograde.

So happy that my script Katana Crocodile made it to quarterfinals, congrats to everyone!

Congratulations, Quarterfinalists!

Congratulations to everyone. My script “The Underground Consultant” made it to Quarterfinals!

Congratulations to everyone that hit quarterfinalist. No small achievement there. Solid work

Really pleased that my thriller MORGAN’S WAKE has been named a quarterfinalist, among so many other great pieces of work (some of which I recognise from my own work as a script consultant, which is really great to see). Congratulations to everybody who is progressing &, indeed, everyone who entered.