Plot Construction Using Reverse Cause and Effect

Use this tool to discover what’s necessary, or central, to the spine of your story

by Jeffrey Kitchen

Reverse Cause and Effect is a unique development tool that enables you to wade into a complex mix of story material and pull it together into a tight sequence of events. Cause and effect is a crucial part of good screenwriting because Plot Point A should cause Plot Point B which causes Plot Point C, and so on through to the ending. If each event causes the next one, then your script has a crisp forward motion, with no dead spots that can lose an audience. Used properly, this tool has the power to consistently help turn your million dollar ideas into salable screenplays. I’ll explain the tool, show how it works in Ben Affleck’s Argo, and then structure and develop an original story so you can see it in action.

The main skill in using Reverse Cause and Effect is to be able to distinguish that which caused an event from those events that merely came before it. Say that your sister calls you one morning and orders you to buy a lottery ticket because she had this incredible dream, and when you do so you win a boatload of money. Now any number of things might happen before you win the money—you lose your car keys, you buy some cigarettes, you get a parking ticket—but the cause of you winning is that your sister made you do it. MORE...

Creative Screenwriting Magazine

"One Way Ticket" Award Winning Short Film

"One Way Ticket" from Scrawny Strange on Vimeo.

CoStarring LETICIA MARTINEZ

11 Ways To Write Faster

  08.28.2012 Stephanie Palmer
How quickly can you create great material?
Here are eleven ways to improve the speed of your creative process:

1. Develop Your Pitch First

Most people think of their pitch as a tool for selling their screenplay, TV pilot, or novel. This is why most people wait to work on their pitch until just before their first meeting with a decision-maker. Unfortunately, as soon as they start to work on the pitch, they often discover significant issues with the core concept—and tank the meeting.
This can be avoided if you incorporate pitching as part of the creative process. At the point where you feel like you have an idea worth considerable time and energy, that’s when you want to start pitching and discovering any problems with your concept.

2. Clarify Your Theme

How many scenes do you have to throw away because—even if they’re great—they don’t quite “fit” the story?
Clarify your theme by making a specific statement your story will prove or a question your story will answer. When you have written your theme precisely, you’ll write more scenes that are “on point.” (For more on this, see Save The Cat by Blake Snyder, p. 73-74.) MORE...

Riley's Beach - Webisode

Riley's Beach - Ep1 from Scrawny Strange on Vimeo.

ALONA SUMMERS as RILEY MADISON

How To Write A Screenplay Agents Will Love

How To Write A Screenplay: 7 Things Agents Want To See In Your Script

06.04.2014 Stephanie Palmer
Before I get to the list of seven things, I want to make sure we’re on the same page about this: all agents are brokers.
In the same way stockbrokers buy and sell stock and are paid on commission, agents in Hollywood arrange transactions between buyers and sellers and are paid only when the deals go through.
This means that when an agent encounters a new project from a new writer, they are thinking about how long it would take them to sell the project and how much they might get paid.

That in itself may not surprise you, but the way in which the assessment is made may influence your choices when you decide how to write your screenplay.

I’ve worked with all the major literary agencies in a variety of capacities. As a studio executive I hired 100+ writers and purchased 25+ screenplays. As a writer, I worked with an agent to sell my book. And as a consultant, I help my screenwriter clients to find literary agents. MORE....
http://goodinaroom.com/blog/how-to-write-a-screenplay-agents/

MILES Actress Rosa Stacy Oul

Rosa Stacy Oul played sexy "Jazz" in the TV Pilot MILES.

  MILES "That One Night Stand" from Scrawny Strange on Vimeo.

Writer’s Edge: Why Horror Movies Sell

 

By: Steve Kaire | June 6, 2014

SCRIPT MAG
The horror genre has been with us since the advent of silent films. There seems to be a strong, unexplainable and innate reason people want to be frightened.
The reasons why horror films are so popular and
successful at the box office are many. From the strictly budgetary point of view, horror movies are inexpensive to produce, compared to other genres. Few locales, unknown actors, and cut rate special effects make for cheap thrills. Several spectacular successes using that formula was The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. Think about it. Both those films had limited locations, no name casts, and relatively inexpensive special effects. MORE...

Specs & The City: The Threshold Guardian Archetype and ‘The Princess Bride

By: Brad Johnson | May 21, 2014
 The primary benefit of utilizing archetypes when developing the characters for your screenplay is their universality. By basing your characters, no matter how outlandish or unique, on an archetype model, you’re making it easier for your audience to identify with them; to see part of themselves, or the people they know, or the situation’s they’ve been in, within the world you’ve created. There’s nothing more powerful than that when it comes to storytelling.

Previously, I talked about The Herald and their role in getting the plot moving, and now that your hero has decided to undertake the journey laid out before them it’s time to take a look at…MORE...