#screenwriting 101

[the-most-humble-blog]

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💄🧨 KILL THE GIRLBOSS — OR KILL THE STORY

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Let’s talk about the word “Girlboss.”

A term born in a boardroom, beta-tested on brunch mimosas, and shipped to an audience that never existed.

It’s a costume. A filter. A pink-tinted hallucination designed to simulate power while defanging character.

🧠 Here’s your free reality check, writer: If your character’s entire vibe is “Some people will love this” — you’ve already written for no one.

Because:

“Some people” don’t buy tickets. “Some people” don’t rewatch scenes for decades. “Some people” don’t carry myth in their blood.

And “some people” sure as hell don’t want to see a movie that feels like a tampon commercial disguised as a Marvel installment.

You wanna write a female character who matters?

Then burn the blueprint the studios handed you. Because that script was ghostwritten by executives who care more about merchandise synergy than myth.

And their screenwriters? Cowards who’d rather cash a check than fight for truth on the page.

📜 Let me show you what made humans worth filming in the first place.

We don’t watch stories about a cow’s peaceful journey around the pasture. We watch stories where a human soul stands between the cosmos and a punch from the f*cking infinity gauntlet.

Because the only question that matters in myth is:

> “What would I do in that body, in that moment, with that weight?”

That’s how myth transfers. That’s how legend moves. Not by t-shirt slogans.

Not by quippy disrespect toward male characters who’ve bled for the cause.

💥 WRITING LESSON: Kill the Girlboss, Save the Story

Erase the term “Girlboss.” Not for cancel culture reasons. For craft reasons. It’s childish. Cringe. Infantalizing. Real power doesn’t self-brand. It radiates.

Never have her declare her own badassery. That’s not a reveal. That’s insecurity. If the audience can’t see it, you failed.

Never have her flippantly disrespect a male hero who’s proven his value over multiple arcs unless the script answers for it. You think fans forgot that he saved her nana in Movie 1, her sisterhood in Movie 2, and took a space-beam to the chest in Movie 3? You think the audience doesn’t notice when the new girl talks like she skipped the war but wants to boss the veterans?

Men and women are not the same. And that’s the point. Stop writing female leads like men with a flat iron. You know who looked cool? Sarah Connor. Doing pull-ups in a concrete monkey cage. Sweaty. Unhinged. Ripped like a prom dress. And when Arnie walked back into her life, even though he was on her side this time — she flinched. She almost pissed herself. Because trauma doesn’t care about plot twists. She pushed through it anyway. Not for clout. For her son.

📌 Write this down. Tape it to your wall. Bleed it into your next script:

> Girlboss is not a compliment. > It’s a warning label. > It means you wrote a child’s idea of power > with none of the scars.

Now, open your notebook. Write “Girlboss.” Draw a line through it. And whisper:

> “I refute the premise.”

Then get to work. Or flounder for two more years under the illusion that writer’s block is anything more than your conscience refusing to publish garbage.

Good day, ma’am. Or sir.

This was not advice. This was a literary firing squad. Follow for more truths the studios are too soft to tell you. ➡️ [Your Patreon Link] for scrolltrap screenwriting lessons, cognitive demolition, and raw myth-building power.

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[gaykarstaagforever]

The first thing you want to do when you start working on your movie is draw out an animatic of the cool thematic animated menu for the 2003 DVD release.

[filmcourage]

If You Know The Ending... You Know The Beginning (Writing Advice) - Andrew Zinnes

Watch the video interview on YouTube here.

[belliesandburps]

Tips in Writing - Internal Conflict

Taking a break from kink stuff to share some general writing tips as someone who’s been “in the game” for a bit.  XD

This first one is about writing organic conflict among your protagonists.  Why it’s important, what to avoid, and what to zero in on.

There’s a tricky thing in writing a lot of people get wrong; conflict.

See, conflict is essential.  It doesn’t just mean conflict with a villain or an overarching threat, but conflict within.  Without it, you have no story and no growth.  It’s through conflict that your characters grow.  In screenwriting, it tends to happen in the “rock bottom” of any script, when things are at their lowest and your heroes are all in disarray before they learn something about themselves, grow, become better, and unite for the finale.

The problem is, all too often, conflict becomes contrived or forced.  Like it happens because you EXPECT that beat to happen.  My favorite example was IT - Chapter 1, because for as fun as that movie was, my god, the Loser Club all snapping at each other after their big showdown with Pennywise...only to IMMEDIATELY get back together after he goes after Bev was forced as sin. 

Conflict has be organic.  It has to feel natural, and growth can come through revelation, but it has to be something that occurs overtime.  Keeping things spoiler free, I said for a while that a big part of why I actually quite liked the dark arc of MHA despite it running contrary to the show / manga is because it felt 100% organic, and was completely in-line with Midoriya as a character.  More importantly, it was in line with Midoriya’s biggest character flaws which have existed since day 1.  This arc is the culmination of those flaws kind of reaching a full boiling point.  Which made the payoff so much more cathartic and meaningful.

In my HISS series, three of the main supporting characters are Nara, Lev and John.  They’re all three mercenaries part of a larger gang of mercenaries that Nara runs.  She’s the boss and she don’t eff around despite being bombastic and very cocky.  But there’s a lot more to her beneath the surface and a lot more fueling why she does what she does.  That same thing bleeds over to Lev and John, but manifests itself differently with each one.  John is decidedly “unliked” among the group.  He doesn’t cause arguments or stir shit up for the hell of it, but he and Nara very clearly dislike each other, or more accurately, Nara dislikes him and he’s mostly indifferent.  He’s not a likeable person, but he’s also not an asshole either.  The conflict comes from the fact that, not only are their personalities night’n day, but both wanna run things in very different ways.  And neither side is necessarily wrong.  Nara’s the boss so what she says goes, but John’s alternatives aren’t unreasonable and could work too.  It’s an instance where she kind of despises John but has him as her number two because of seniority and because he’s very good at what he does.  So part of her hates him, but a bigger part of her NEEDS him.

Lev, meanwhile, is stuck between the middle because he’s incredibly loyal to Nara and is with her through thick-n-thin.  But at the same time, he doesn’t hate John the way Nara seems like she does half the times.  Lev’s probably the closest thing John has to a friend among the entire gang.  And while John doesn’t admit he cares for Lev or ever hang out with him or even act like much of a friend, he’s the first to always have Lev’s back.  The two are teamed up most of the time, and both work really well together.  It’s a conflict brought on by a trio of mercenaries who all want the same thing and are often on the same side, but the resentment between two means there’s always an air of tension, made worse by the man in the middle just wanting everyone to get along, but knowing that it’s impossible because of things that occurred between the two.

Aidan, in massive contrast to Hakari, is a cocky dickhead who thinks he’s better than everyone, and doesn’t need help.  Except his journey is one that kind of REQUIRES him to get help because he literally won’t survive without it.  And in his case, the conflict comes from him just being an asshole who is stuck with mages he believes are lesser than he is, and are only dragging him down.  It’s learning to lean on others; recognizing that no one can truly be an Ace of all Spades and that, for as great as you may be at something, there are plenty MORE things others will be infinitely better at.  And instead of trying to be the best, Aidan has to learn to lean on those strengths and build people up instead of constantly pushing them down.

Conflict and character flaws go hand-n-glove together because its those flaws that lead to conflict.  Understand your characters and their biggest weaknesses.  Find out what they need to learn and how they can become better people over the entirety of their journeys, and use that to inform on conflict. 

Just don’t ever make conflict arise “because it has to.”  It DOES have to, but it also has to be the natural boiling point (that just happens to coincide with the rock bottom of your story).  Because your readers / audience will know if something feels contrived or manufactured, and that will, inevitably, take them out of the moment. 

And now, back to your regularly scheduled kinky goodness.  :P

[filmcourage]

The Screenplay Outline Workbook: Prepare To Write Your Best Script - Naomi Beaty [FULL INTERVIEW] via FilmCourage.com.

[filmcourage]

(Watch the video interview on Youtube here)

What Is Method Writing? - Jack Grapes

Film Courage: What is method writing?

Jack Grapes, Artist, Writer, Author, Instructor: Oh, you’re starting off with a hard question. Well, I’m an actor. Method acting is a big school of acting that Marlon Brando and people like that studied under (Marlyn Monroe) and so forth. I studied method acting and it stresses an authentic response to what your work is. You’re not acting with gestures, you’re being true, you’re being natural. I was teaching writing in which I thought I wanted writers not to worry about the technique or the style to begin with but to….(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).

[filmcourage]

Biggest Lessons From First Hollywood Writing Job - Glenn Gers

Film Courage: How did you get your first Hollywood writing job? 

Glenn Gers, Screenwriter: It was a fluke, a freak occurrence. It was actually a script that I had written 10 years before. It was my first script and I had gotten an agent with my first script. I'd gotten very lucky. I knew someone who knew someone who showed it to an agent who picked me up as their client but they could not get me. There had been a very small option during the 10 years. Other than that I was office temping and administrative-assistant-ing and doing some development work for indie companies and I was beginning to think I should stop because I was actually planning to become a teacher, like maybe a high school teacher or college teacher if I could because at least I would have summer vacations to write. It was always what can I do to support my writing? That never stopped but the idea of becoming a screenwriter stopped because I was like why keep beating my head against the wall? I had written a bunch of scripts, I had an agent. If I wasn't making it...(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).

[filmcourage]

(Watch the video interview on Youtube here)

What I Wish I Knew About Screenwriting When I Started - Joe Wilson

Film Courage: What is something about storytelling you wish you had learned earlier in your career or you wish you had stuck to your guns on something? Maybe people tried to talk you out of it?

Joe Wilson, Writer/Director/Comedian/Photographer:  I guess I wished I’d knew how much more character development was to writing. I don’t think I developed the characters enough when I started writing and I think that’s where if I had known to take more time to develop the characters I think I would have had less of a challenge in either the writing or the rewriting (especially the rewriting) because I think when you’ve got a draft you are going through it…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).