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This list gets added to regularly by a curator. It's right up our alley.

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What Makes a Good Critic? Is it books on the shelf? Or credits on IMDb? It certainly seems reasonable. They're good enough to get produced or published, so they obviously know their stuff. - See more at: http://landlockedscreenwriter.nwoscreenwriters.com/2014/02/everybodys-critic-but-should-you-pay.html#sthash.pogfDhVI.dpuf

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4 Rules to Writing Amazing Character Introductions

Character introductions can be vital to the success of your screenplay, because, as we all know, first impressions are everything. We often make monumental, life altering decisions based on first impressions. We will forgive mistake after heartbreaking mistake because that initial meeting clouds our judgement. Likewise, a great character introduction can prop up your screenplay in its weakest moments. - See more at: http://landlockedscreenwriter.nwoscreenwriters.com/2013/09/4-rules-for-writing-amazing-character.html#sthash.hnQkY98P.dpuf

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Interactive Screenplays for Everybody!

Focus Features has started a trend, first with Wes Anderson and followed by Edgar Wright, of posting free combination screenplays/behind-the-scenes fan books for its films. A trend that I hope catches on with other studios. - See more at: http://landlockedscreenwriter.nwoscreenwriters.com/2013/09/screenplay-sunday-interactive.html#sthash.aNFe1zpw.dpuf

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The currency of television is character, and this series examines archetypal television characters from all angles with interviewees like David Lynch, Vince Gilligan, Ron Howard, David Chase and more.

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Knowing this rule can help you quickly add backstory to a character.

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Just Because It's Obligatory Doesn't Mean It Has To Feel Like It

The word obligation comes with a lot of baggage. While it means that something has to be done, often because of a contract or duty, it also connotes a certain sense of joylessness—that whatever is being done is only done because you have to. The same goes for obligatory scenes in movies, like the airport scene in a romantic comedy or the scene in war movies where everyone talks about their lives back home. These scenes seem to carry a damned if you do, damned if you don't caveat: if you have them in your screenplay, the audience often groans and rolls their eyes, but if you leave them out, you might seem like an amateur who doesn't understand the conventions of your genre. Your task as a screenwriter is to fulfill your obligation without eliciting a groan from your audience. - See more at: http://landlockedscreenwriter.nwoscreenwriters.com/2013/08/just-because-its-obligatory-doesnt-mean.html#sthash.btE3smXd.dpuf

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The Benefits of an MFA in Screenwriting

Much of what screenwriters do can be self-taught. I'm pretty sure that John Huston, Ernest Lehman or any of the other pioneers of the silver screen did not have the benefit of spending two years in the classroom honing their abilities as storytellers. Yet a Master's of Fine Arts in Screenwriting is an option that many budding screenwriters are now choosing for themselves.

So why should you choose an MFA in Screenwriting?

- See more at: http://landlockedscreenwriter.nwoscreenwriters.com/2013/08/the-benefits-of-mfa-in-screenwriting.html#sthash.xAkus7xm.dpuf

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Screenplay Sunday: Oscar Contender Screenplay Downloads

Every year Focus Features puts up a website that has PDF versions of the screenplays that they want to be considered for the Academy awards, and, fortunately for knowledge hungry screenwriters, they have kept every website up and running since 2009. - See more at: http://landlockedscreenwriter.nwoscreenwriters.com/2013/08/oscar-contender-screenplays-for-download.html#more

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How To Write a Screenplay Without Losing Your Mind

So you've got an idea for a movie and you've decided to write it yourself. But where do you begin? It's tempting to download some screenplay software and type that first Fade in. But there are few feelings more crushing than cruising along only to have your story come to an unexpected yet screeching halt. Staring you in the face you have 60 more pages, a vast expanse of glowing white nothingness, the blinking cursor taunting you, and no map to guide you. It's enough to cause you to forever shelve your script, if not your writing career. What happened? - See more at: http://landlockedscreenwriter.nwoscreenwriters.com/2013/08/how-to-write-screenplay-without-losing.html#more

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You must determine what would cause your character to throw off the shackles of the familiar and venture into the nebulous unknown. - See more at: http://landlockedscreenwriter.nwoscreenwriters.com/2013/08/how-to-set-stakes-in-your-screenplay.html#more

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Marshall Your Words: Don't Let Orphans Rob Your Screenplay

If "store" is in your slugline, you can also eliminate that word.

Orphans (according to Chicago Manual Style) are "a word, part of a word, or very short line that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph." Eliminating them can get you whole pages freed up for your screenplay. Not only that, but, since they are often caused by wordiness, getting rid of orphans often requires you to scrutinize your prose, forcing you think about and express your ideas much more clearly. You'll also find that going through and eliminating orphans from your screenplay by being more concise will result in clearer, more vivid action description.

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The Hero’s Journey, or Monomyth, is mythologist Joseph Campbell’s theory that most stories throughout the world follow a simple narrative pattern.  This pattern can be expressed in many different ways. Sometimes it’s a circle, or a straight line, or another shape entirely. It can contain as many of 17 steps and as few as 3. At its most basic, the theory states that:

The Protagonist is called to adventure.

The Protagonist must undergo trials or great hardship

The Protagonist masters the conflict and returns home.

It makes sense, right? You can probably think of a lot of books and movies that follow the pattern. Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Star Wars, The Odyssey, Ender’s Game, Beowulf, American Gods, Alice in Wonderland. To name just a few. But there are a lot of problems with the Hero’s Journey. 

It leaves out A LOT of stories. Ulysses, Sandman, Twilight, Beauty and the Beast, Star Trek, Dune, Watchmen, The Adventures of Huck Finn, and Memento, to say nothing of every single romcom and story told outside of North America and Europe. These stories might be qualitatively good, or they might not be, but their lack of adherence to the Monomyth structure doesn’t have anything to do with their critical or commercial success.

Following the structure doesn’t guarantee good stories. The Dark Tower Series, Last Action Hero, Van Helsing (movie), 50 Shades of Grey, Battlefield Earth, Temptation, Spawn, Mars Needs Moms are all arguably weak from a critical perspective. Yet they follow the Hero’s Journey just as well as many stronger stories that proponents of Monomyth want to claim.

See stories attributed to Monomyth that you don’t agree fit the mold? No kidding! That’s another problem with the theory. Campbell himself notoriously shoehorned famous stories and myths into his narrow frame, attributing great importance to pieces that fit well, and quietly de-emphasizing aspects of stories that didn’t fit his theory. Which means that anyone can attempt to argue Anastasia from 50 Shades of Grey receiving her first spank represents a “Call to Action”. 

Traditionally, the Hero’s Journey has been sexist and Eurocentric. It claims to represent stories from all over the world, but it doesn’t do a very good job of representing stories, myths or heroes from Asian, African, or Indigenous cultures. Stories that adhere to Monomyth stress individualist ego and exceptionalism over stories of social cooperation, and ignore stories and myths that don’t feature one individual hero. Furthermore, stories that rigidly adhere to Monomyth exclude female Protagonists. Check out TEMPTATION, MEETING THE GODDESS, and RESCUE THE PRINCESS, which all appear at different parts of different versions of the Hero’s Journey. According to Campbell, TEMPTATION requires “the seeker of the life beyond life must press beyond (the woman), surpass the temptations of her call, and soar to the immaculate ether beyond.” When the Hero MEETS THE GODDESS, it represents him meeting the purest form of femininity and creation. Campbell vainly asserts there is a female equivalent, but is unable to cite any examples. Can you? Who tempts the Heroine? Who does she meet who represents goodness and creation? Does she save the hero? Campbell allows for the possibility, but Monomyth’s default setting is male hero, female plot device. 

It’s cliche as hell. When it’s done well, it’s a crowd pleaser, sure. But structurally it’s been done almost literally to death. And that’s okay, because it’s so limiting in the kinds of stories it can tell, that in order to be original, you have to break free.

Bottom Line:  There is nothing wrong with following a traditional story structure in your writing. Just don’t be a slave to Campbell’s outdated, Eurocentric Monomyth theory of mythology. Don’t confuse a tool of literary criticism with some holy grail of plot structure. It won’t get you published or even considered if your story isn’t otherwise compelling. It’s just ONE kind of narrative arc that exists. Dare to be different. Dare to write.

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It's the secret to great drama: having a deeply flawed protagonist.

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Screenplay Sunday: Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest

Earlier this year, on a whim of sorts, I decided to try my hand at the Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest . I was in between screenplays and busy teaching so I thought, why not ?

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Mad Men, Matthew Weiner and The Death of Cinema

Maybe it's just me, but over the past few months there has been a perfect storm of events that have foreshadowed a paradigm shift for writers of screens both big and small. It started with the...