I spent the last couple of days almost exclusively reading contest submissions. They’re never-ending! Sometimes I ask myself, “Why did you sign up for this again?” But then a good script will come along and the negative voices quiet down and I remember exactly why I signed up for this, praise the lord, Hallelujah. Today, I thought I’d dedicate an article to some of my most recent contest submission observations. Hopefully, these help a few people out.

1 – The best reads are the ones where I forget I’m reading something because I’m so into what’s happening. I rarely encounter this, though, since, at the beginning of a screenplay, most writers are focused on setting things up (the characters, the setting, the plot). I’ve beaten this horse to death but it’s clearly not getting through so I’ll say it again. When you start writing your script, start from a place of, ‘I’m going to hook the reader,” not from a place of, “I’ve got to set everything up.” The former is the only chance you have at keeping the reader around.

2 – There is one exception to this rule. If you’re not writing an entertaining scene, you must be building towards an entertaining scene and the reader has to know it. Let’s say you’re writing a sports movie. You don’t have to start with an entertaining game. But you should start with a buildup towards that game. Mention the game. Convey how important it is. Introduce the quarterback who’s injured. The doctor tells him he won’t be able to play. If you do this well, the reader will want to stick around to see the game. This is relevant not just for the beginning of your script, but for the whole thing. You don’t have to entertain the reader every second of your story. But if you’re not entertaining them, you have to be building towards the next entertaining sequence.

3 – If I’m not allowed to set anything up, how do I set everything up? – I didn’t say you couldn’t set up your story. Only that entertaining the reader must take priority over set up. I would suggest coming up with a great scene idea irregardless of whether it’s an ideal scene to set everything up in. Your only focus in coming up with that scene should be in entertaining the reader. Once you’ve done the important part – written an entertaining scene – then go back and figure out how to work in your set up.

4 – What if I have a lot of set up? – Then maybe you should think about simplifying your plot. Lots of set up means lots of exposition. The more exposition there is in your script, the bigger the chance of boring the reader. All this stuff is interconnected, guys. You simplify your story so you don’t need a lot of set up so you don’t need a lot of exposition so your story is more focused on entertainment.

5 – What’s wrong with set up exactly? – The problem with set up is that it FEELS LIKE SET UP. When a writer is in “set up this character” mode, it feels to the reader like you’re setting up a character. If it feels that way, we’re not inside your story. We’re outside of it, watching you set up your character. Newsflash. You want us INSIDE your story. The more entertaining the scene, the less likely we’re going to notice that you’re setting up your character. It’s easier to hide that stuff if we’re enamored with your wonderfully entertaining scene. But if you start a scene off with the goal of “setting up my hero,” there’s a good chance we’re going to realize that that’s exactly what you’re doing. Go watch the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Probably one of the best scenes ever at setting up a character. But do you ever notice he’s being set up. Of course not. Because the scene’s so darn entertaining!

Note: I changed my approach and started reading loglines before reading entries.
6 – Loglines tell me if someone is a serious screenwriter or not – Loglines suck. There’s no two ways about. How do you condense an entire movie down to a single sentence? It’s impossible. However, what I’ve found, with 99% accuracy, is that the good writers know how to write a logline and the bad writers do not. I think what’s going on here is that the people who are dedicated to mastering this craft and putting in the time required to do so, eventually learn how to write a logline by necessity. They don’t like it. But they realize it’s a tool that helps other people get a sense of their script and therefore they must figure it out. I can’t tell you how many loglines I read and say, “This script is going to be bad.” Then I open the script and, what do you know, it’s bad. Get help on your loglines, guys. From me or a writer friend or someone around here. A lot of you are hanging yourselves before the reader has even opened the script.

7 – Utilize everything at your disposal to create memorable characters – Most writers do the bare minimum when introducing a character. Heck, out of every 10 scripts I read, half of them will describe a character in less than one word (i.e. skittish). There are lots of options you can use to introduce a character in an interesting way. The trick is to focus on the things your character HAS CONTROL OVER. These were choices they made. And we can get a good sense of a character by their choices. Their posture. Their clothing. Their hairstyle. Their car. Their mannerisms. If we’re in their home when we meet them, the way they’ve decorated the room. “JOHN, 55, dressed head-to-toe in Gucci, his thinning black-dyed hair slicked back with too much product, answers his bedazzled phone.” See how much you can convey about a person with this strategy?

8 – Nothing should ever go according to plan in a screenplay – There are a lot of scripts out there written by writers who’ve been writing for 5, 6, 7, even 10 years that are pretty good but not good enough. These writers know everything that they’re “supposed to do.” So their scripts have a professional sheen to them. But what I’ve found with a lot of these scripts is that the writers have story tunnel vision. They know where their character has to start. They know where their character has to end. So there’s this inevitability to everything that happens in between. Nothing comes up that’s truly a problem for the characters. What you should be doing is making sure the plan is constantly being interrupted. Things are popping up that zig and zag the story in ways that weren’t originally intended. I’ll give you an example from Star Wars. The whole Luke Skywalker Obi-Wan Kenobi Han Solo objective is to get to Alderran. So they get there and… it’s gone. Talk about things not going according to plan. Now what? There needs to be a part of your brain dedicated to repeatedly asking the question, “What if this crazy thing happened here?” That should give you a steady stream of interruptions that will keep your story fresh.

9 – Multiple character arcs – I notice that a lot of writers create one character arc in their entire script. It’s like, “Phew, I’m glad I’m done with that.” But if you want to add some turbo to your script, arc several characters. I’ll never forget listening to the Notting Hill (a movie with 7 or 8 character arcs) director’s commentary and whoever was on there with the writer, Richard Curtis, gasped at one point late and said, “Jesus, Richard. You even gave the restaurant a bloody character arc!” That’s what good writers do. Movies are vehicles to explore change. So don’t limit yourself to your hero.

10 – Don’t despair if your script isn’t loved by a reader – It’s important to remember that when a reader dislikes your script, it isn’t always your fault. The writing may not be that writer’s thing. The reader might even think that the concept is good and the writing is solid. But that doesn’t matter if it’s not their thing. I’m going to use a weird analogy to make my point. I once dated a girl who had this friend who didn’t like me. She didn’t have a reason not to like me. I tried everything in my power to make her like me. Nothing worked. One day I finally confronted her and I said, “Why do you hate me so much?” She said, “I don’t hate you. I just don’t get you.” There will always be people who don’t get you just as there will always be people who don’t get your writing. It makes sense when you think about it. All writing has personality baked into it. Your voice is in there. So if someone doesn’t like that voice, they’re not going to like your script. I say this because every twenty entries, I’ll come across a script that’s well-written and has a good concept, yet the personality of the writing is sooooo not my thing (for example, there are virtually zero Scorsese clones that I’m going to like – I dislike that writing style so much). So don’t get down if your script isn’t beloved by someone. Keep sending it out and you’ll eventually find that person who gets you.

You still have until tomorrow (Thursday) night at 8pm Pacific to enter your action spec for Amateur Action Showdown!

One of the most frustrating things about pursuing screenwriting for a majority of people is screenwriting contests. A lot of these feel like a crapshoot. Who knows who’s reading your script. That horror script you wrote that’s going to make IT’s box office look like Charlie’s Angels could end up in the hands of someone who detests horror movies. And who knows what order a reader reads your script in. Is it his second script of the day, where he’s alert and hopeful? Or his sixth script, where he’s exhausted and thinking about the three chalupa special at Taco Bell? And the whole thing just seems so SUBJECTIVE amirite? Does the best script win? The best idea? The most woke socially conscious biopic concept? Navigating this world can be equal parts frustrating and depressing. But I’m here to help you do better in these masochistic merry-go-rounds of mayhem. With a few tips and the right outlook, you’re going to start seeing results. Let’s get to it!

1) Most screenwriters enter contest scripts that aren’t ready – Look, I’m all for deadlines. Without deadlines, I’d never post anything on this site. But there’s a difference between a realistic deadline and a deadline where all you’ve done is put words a page. Nobody is going to give you points for getting a messy rushed script in on time. And I was guilty of this too. I would use the Nicholl deadline to finish a script and literally send the script on the final date at the last mailing pickup time of the day. And then I’d be mad when my script didn’t win. You are up against 100 to 7000 other scripts in a contest. Do you really think your rushed first draft of a script is going to do well? Nicholl gets rich off of people like you. While story will always be subjective, sloppiness is not. I want you to tattoo what I’m about to say to the inside of your eyeballs because it might be the best advice you’ve ever received: Contests are not about showing the world that you can write a screenplay too. They’re about writing something that STANDS OUT from the pack.

2) Tell a great story with your first scene – While contests are different from “real life” in that the reader will read the entire script, that doesn’t mean they’ll pay attention the entire script. If they’re not impressed with your first scene, their overworked reader brain will switch into skim-mode. Notice I’m giving you a very specific directive for the first scene. I’m not just saying, “Write a great first scene.” I’m saying: “Tell a story.” In other words, hook the reader with something, then make them have to keep reading the rest of the scene to find out how that hook concludes. A female hacker must escape a group of men who have come to capture her (The Matrix). A man calling a babysitter and telling her he’s going to kill her then hanging up (Scream). A man wakes up on a train with no idea why he’s there or who he is (Source Code). The reason to do this is because it’s one of the easiest ways to pull someone in quickly. And contests readers are exhausted so you want to pull them in quickly.

3) Professional presentation – Correct formatting, no misspellings, no grammar mistakes, no punctuation mistakes, no light text from cheap screenwriting programs, no ultra-wide dialogue margins, no “condensed” mode to turn your 130 page script into a 110 page script regardless of the fact that all the lines overlap each other vertically. This one seems obvious but as someone who’s read a lot of amateur screenplays, I can tell you that a lot of you who think you’re being professional aren’t. If you’re someone who has written under three screenplays, you are probably making some mistakes in your presentation. Become OCD about your presentation. It’s one of the most reliable ways for us readers to spot bad scripts.

4) Your dialogue is thin, obvious, and on the nose – While there’s plenty of debate about what constitutes the difference between good and great dialogue, everybody knows what bad dialogue is. Bad dialogue is characters saying exactly what they’re thinking in simplistic uncreative ways. It is characters espousing exposition like robots. It is characters who are speaking directly to the reader as opposed to the other character in the scene. It’s a long road to become good at dialogue but the starting point is your characters. If the characters are fun talky types, they’re going to have more interesting dialogue. If you know the character well, you’ll be able to write more specific dialogue for them (example: If you know your character once lived in France, they may occasionally throw a French word into a sentence). And if you know how to inject conflict into a scene, your dialogue will improve exponentially.

5) Know your audience – There’s an old documentary with Vince Vaughn where he takes a group of young comics out on the road to do stand up. One of Vince’s comedian’s central bits was about how real men don’t wear sandals. At their first show, he went on about how sandals are for wussies. The problem? They were at a Colorado college campus where 90% of the college men in the audience were wearing sandals. The boos from that crowd still echo in his ears to this day. What’s the lesson here? STOP SENDING GENRES TO CONTESTS THAT DON’T CELEBRATE THOSE GENRES. The Nicholl doesn’t celebrate horror scripts just as The Tracking Board doesn’t celebrate two American Indians trying to start a rug business in 1865. You live in the age of the internet. Do not send your script ANYWHERE until you go to their website and find out every script that has won and placed in their contest for the past five years. You’re going to save yourself a lot of wasted money. Trust me.

6) Contests tend to reward ingenuity – Most scripts read like every other script. The contained thrillers, the biopics, the Westerns, the guy with a gun, the buddy cop, the heist movie. There isn’t anything wrong with writing one of these scripts and executing it well. You can start a career with a great version of any of these genres. But in contests, these scripts blend into the background because they’re so common. The scripts that rise up tend to be those that try something different. For example, Shimmer Lake, which won Austin years back and later became a Netflix movie. That was a mystery that was told backwards. Stuff like 500 Days of Summer. Or yesterday’s and Tuesday’s scripts. There’s so much of the same in these contests that you stand out with a creative storytelling take.

7) You need at least 5 contests (with a single script) to know where you stand – A single contest not liking your script isn’t enough to identify where the script is or where you are as a writer. There are too many variables involved. However, if you send your script to five contests and it doesn’t advance in any of them (even to the second round), there’s likely something wrong with THE BASICS OF YOUR SCREENWRITING. We’re talking bad presentation, a huge page count, a vague concept, misspellings and grammatical errors, not understanding the basics of scene-writing (beginning, middle, end), lack of clarity in the writing, an inability to set up your hero effectively, no concept of what conflict is or how to use it. Good screenwriters have all the basics down. If you’re not advancing at all in contests, I can almost guarantee you it’s because you don’t know all of these things. So learn them and get back in there with your next script.

8) If you’ve written more than six scripts and still aren’t placing in any contests, GET FEEDBACK – I know I’m expensive so you don’t have to use me. But find SOMEBODY who understands screenwriting and can be honest with you. Otherwise you’re flying blind. You have no idea what to work on or what to improve. About five years ago, this writer came to me with this very problem. He’d been writing for 15 years and had never placed in a contest before. So he ordered a consultation and his script was this completely zany out-there concept. It was so weird. Out of curiosity, I asked him to send me the loglines for his previous five scripts. They were all really weird and out-there. It would be the equivalent of writing Armageddon and adding a cannibal storyline where one of the cannibals was a ghost. I said to him, dude, you’re all over the place. You need to simplify your concepts and stop trying to be so zany. And the next script I read from him was a major improvement. And he admitted to me that he would’ve never known his ideas were too weird had he not gotten feedback. He had been told early on that you have to write something that’s unique to get people’s attention and he mistakingly took that advice and applied it 1 million percent. The point is, you could be making the most obvious mistake with your script but if you don’t get feedback every once in a while, you’ll never know.

9) If you’ve consistently placed in contests (top 10 or 20%) but can’t get any further, you’re probably in one of two positions – a) You’re extremely talented but raw. Half your script has flashes of Tarantino but the other half feels like a compilation of Donald Trump’s tweets. b) You’re a screenplay technician who’s mastered the formula, but your script lacks big risks and stand out moments. There’s not enough creativity in your storytelling. If you’re the former, put aside six months and learn the nuts and bolts of screenwriting (especially structure). If you’re the latter, watch all of the weirdest (good) movies you can find and study the choices the screenwriters make that result in such a unique viewing experience.

10) Your script is only going to be as good as its concept and main character – Lame uninspired concepts do not turn into good scripts. Boring/weak/lame main characters don’t all of a sudden become interesting on page 90. You can be a good screenwriter but if you’re entering contests with one of these two problems, your script isn’t going to do well. Period.

I hope this was helpful. Leave your favorite contests in the Comments Section and I’ll put together a master list here.

SO FAR

Nicholl
Austin
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The Tracking Board

I have to make a formal apology to Clint Eastwood. I have criticized almost every one of Clint’s directing efforts. I hate that he shoots early drafts that still have a ton of fat in them and never explains why. If you ever wondered, “Why do I want to fall asleep so badly?” during a Clint Eastwood movie, that’s your answer. Overall, I’ve seen him as an overrated filmmaker who, due to numerous unknown forces, keeps catching lightning in a bottle. But call me a convert because The Mule is the best movie he’s made in a long time – maybe ever. And the funny thing is, it’s the most under the radar film he’s made in 20 years.

It was so under the radar I kept putting it off until I saw it’d made 100 million dollars at the box office. I thought this movie had traversed in and out of theaters in 3 weeks. If you had asked me how much it had made, I would’ve guessed, 25 million? 30 maybe? But 100 million??? For a movie about an 85 year old man? Not in a million years.

So in a Mish-Mash Monday post that was to be all about Detective Pikachu losing out to Endgame (YESSSS!!!) and how networks are making 10 minute episode TV shows now (huh???), I’m tossing the site into the wayback machine so we can get a little classic Scriptshadow. That’s right. I’m providing 10 screenwriting tips you can learn from The Mule. Shout out to Nick Schenk for writing a great script.

For those who haven’t seen the movie, it’s about an 85 year old man, Earl Stone, whose life is thrown into disarray when his flower business is made extinct by the internet. Forced to make money somehow, he becomes a drug mule for a Mexican cartel, driving large bags of drugs into the city. Earl’s handler is a guy named Julio who trails him in a separate car to make sure Earl always gets to his destination. Earl is constantly trying Julio’s patience, as he’s stopping to help people with flat tires or enjoy some female company at a local motel. But Julio learns to live with it as Earl fast becomes the number 1 mule in the cartel’s history.

1) Women, children, and the Elderly are more feared for in movies than adult males – This is changing, somewhat, in regards to female characters. But it still holds true that if you’re going to place a character in a dangerous situation, we’ll be more engaged if it’s a woman, child, or elderly person, as we feel they are more susceptible to harm. One of the reasons we root so hard for Earl is because he’s old and frail and, therefore, overmatched. I can already hear a few of you stirring about this so I’ll make my point this way: “Taken” isn’t a movie if Liam Neeson’s 18 year old child is a man. Nor is The Mule a movie if the hero is a 30 year old guy.

2) Look for movie ideas that have contrasting characters – Any scenario pitting two types of people who wouldn’t normally be around one another results in baked-in conflict. One of the reasons this movie is so fun is that Clint Eastwood couldn’t be more different from the young brash Mexican drug runners he must deal with. Every scene they’re in together has conflict running underneath it because of this. And like I said, it’s “baked in.” That means it’s there before you even write anything.

3) Adult subject matter requires adult script choices – If you’re going to write about tough subjects, you can’t Disney-fy the execution. You have to pick some spots and make darker choices. These hypnotize the reader into believing the story is legit. One of the more surprising choices in The Mule was to make the 85 year old main character a womanizer. There are two separate scenes where Earl is hooking up with multiple prostitutes. It’s a bit shocking. But it helped distinguish this from every other safe watered down crime script I read.

4) Change the relationship dynamics between characters at some point in the story – Just like in real life, relationships get stale in movies. So you want to look for ways to change the dynamic up. One of my favorite things about this movie was the relationship between Earl and Julio. At first distant, the charismatic Earl wins Julio over. Then, at the midpoint, the big drug lord, Laton, is killed. A new guy comes in and tells Julio he can’t be buddy-buddy with Earl anymore, shifting their relationship from niceness to iciness. It’s a small change but developments like this are what keep reads fresh.

5) “Work vs. Family” is one of the most bankable character flaws in screenwriting – Earl has always put his work above family. That’s his flaw. Now this isn’t an original flaw by any means. However, when it comes to character flaws, it isn’t so much about originality as it is about authenticity. If you really explore how this flaw affects your character’s life, it will work. If you just plop it in there to get a box checked on screenplay coverage, it won’t.

6) Ignite your scene with a charged opening line of dialogue – Every scene should have some element of conflict to it. If you’re having trouble finding that conflict, try this – Have a character start the conversation off with a charged line. There’s a moment deep in The Mule where Earl’s been partying at the drug lord’s mansion all night. He wanders around and spots Julio sitting alone. This could’ve been an opportunity for the two to joke around, to have some fun. And I’m not saying your characters can never have fun. But I liked what the writer did here. Earl sits down and says, “Hey, I thought I’d give you a little advice.” “Me, advice?” Julio says, laughing. “I pass.” “Yeah, I think you ought to quit,” Earl says. The reason this line is so good is because it immediately sets the scene on edge. This conversation is not going to be friendly and fun. It’s going to be a little uncomfortable and dramatic because Earl’s telling a guy who loves this life to leave it. This sets the stage for conflict.

7) Don’t take scenes off – There are a lot of easy things to do in screenwriting. When a character says, “Is that clear?” it’s easy to have the other character respond, “Crystal.” When you’re writing a chase scene, it’s easy to have the chaser come up to the side of the hero’s car and try to ram it off the road. There are a million scenarios we’ve seen a million times already. So when you’re that rare writer who does the easy stuff a little different, you stand out. Let me show you how The Mule kills off its drug lord, Laton. So Laton loves target practice with clay birds. Every time we cut to him, he’s practicing in his back yard. Late in the film, we’re watching him shoot yet again. He yells “Pull!” to signal the clay birds up. They go up, he shoots……. and he stands there. Frozen. Then he falls to the ground. Behind him, one of his men has a gun raised to the back of Laton’s head. He killed him. It was so shocking because we were used to him doing this over and over. Then… bam, his gunshot is actually someone else’s, resulting in his death. Whenever I come across a scene like this, I know a screenwriter is bringing his A-game.

8) Physically weak doesn’t have to mean cowardly – Newbie writers think one-dimensionally. If their hero is old and frail, me must also be scared and compliant. However, readers love it when a character’s actions contrast with a character’s physicality. In an early scene when Earl and Julio meet, Julio puts a gun in his chest and tells him that if he ever messes around, he’s going to kill him. Earl looks Julio dead in the eye and says, “I was in the service. I’m not scared of guys like you” and casually shoves the gun away. In that moment, Earl not only earns our respect, but we’re rooting for him twice as hard. He may be old, but he’s not going to take any s&*%.

9) Dialogue Tip 1 (Not every exchange has to become a conversation) – In an early scene, Earl is sitting with his handler, Julio, having lunch at an outdoor eatery. Julio, whose job is to trail Earl in another car to make sure he gets to his destination, is angry at Earl because this is an unplanned stop. You can feel the tension in the air as Earl plops down their sandwiches. He tells Julio that the reason they stopped at this particular place was because these are the best pulled pork sandwiches on the planet. Julio sort of glares at Earl while he takes a bite. “See what you gotta do,” Earl says, “is take more time out like this. Enjoy life. Like I do.” Julio stares at him. “Maybe. Or maybe you enjoy the moment a little too much. Had too much fun. That’s why you’re working for us now.” First of all, this is a great line. Cause he’s nailed Earl in a single sentence. But the reason I bring this exchange up is that a lot of writers would try and spin this into another page or two of dialogue. Maybe Earl argues about what happened in his life, why his situation is complicated or why Julio is wrong. But the reality is that the main two points have been made. One guys needs to loosen up. The other guy is too loose. We get it. No giant debate is needed. So the next time you think you need some big long debate scene, consider whether you’ve already made your point. There’s nothing worse than reading two pages of filler dialogue.

10) Dialogue Tip 2 (A trick to approximate real-life randomness in conversation) – There’s one more line in this scene. Earl caps their exchange off with, “Best pulled pork sandwich in the whole world,” and takes a bite. Scene over. I love this line. Let me explain why. A huge problem writers have with dialogue is that they approach it too logically. If someone says A, then you must respond with B. You can never go directly to J. It’ll come off as random. But real life is random. So how do you approximate that? You start the scene off talking about a subject. Here, Earl explains that the reason they stopped at this place was because it has great pulled pork sandwiches. The scene then shifts to a more serious exchange, which is where we get the main interaction. “See what you gotta do is take more time out like this. Enjoy life. Like I do.” “Maybe. Or maybe you enjoy the moment a little too much. Had too much fun. That’s why you’re working for us now.” Instead of responding directly to this accusation, Earl says, “Best pulled pork sandwich in the whole world.” It’s a good line because it both DOESN’T respond to Julio’s statement, approximating the randomness of real conversation, yet it still makes sense, since its a continuation of the earlier topic.

Great teasers are expected in horror scripts – When you write a horror film, you HAVE to write a great teaser scene. It’s expected. The teaser in 2018’s Halloween was the most memorable scene in the film. And the same can be said for this Halloween – a boy wearing a mask murders his naked sister in POV. If a horror script gives me a lame teaser, it’s a guarantee that the rest of the script is going to be lame as well.

Bodies in motion – I like when scripts start with something HAPPENING. The characters are IN MOTION, on their way to something. In contrast, bad scripts often begin with characters sitting around. Nobody wants anything. Nobody’s trying to do anything. This sets the tone for a slow dull movie. Get your characters moving after the teaser, preferably doing something that sets the story in motion. After the teaser in Halloween, we cut to Dr. Loomis and a nurse in a car driving to the mental institution to talk to Michael. We’re off to the races already!

Save the Cat still works! – If you’re ever in doubt about whether your hero is likable enough, give them a Save the Cat! scene. It doesn’t even have to be some big production. Like saving an old woman from getting hit by a car. With Laurie, it’s a simple scene where she runs into the boy she’s babysitting that night. The boy clearly loves Laurie, and she’s adorable with him, adhering to all of his demands (watch a movie, make jack-o-lanters, read to him, make popcorn). It’s a short scene, but just like that kid, we now love Laurie as well. The scene speaks to the power of simplicity in storytelling, as pretty much every choice in Halloween is a simple one.

Build build build – In a horror movie, you don’t want your killer to start killing people right away. You want to BUILD towards it. Tease it. Draw out the suspense. Someone’s broken into the local hardware store and stolen a bunch of stuff. Laurie sees a strange figure in a mask standing across from the school. Then a couple of additional times, behind a bush, and in her yard. We’re building building building before the terror is unleashed.

The scariest things don’t have to be complicated – The reason Michael Myers is still terrifying after 40 years is that he’s so simple. A killing machine in an expressionless mask who never says a word. I bring this up only because people think today’s characters have to have really elaborate backstories and motivations. And while that works when done well, sometimes all you need is a simple terrifying monster.

Horror works best under a tight time constraint – Halloween takes place in less than a day. The majority of it takes place in real time. That’s when horror cooks the hottest, when the threat is so immediate that your characters have to deal with it NOW.

Integrate both active and passive storylines – One of the problems with these horror-slasher screenplays is that the victim is passive. Laurie doesn’t know that this man is after her. So she can’t go after anything herself. All she can do is live her life, and unfortunately, our lives are pretty boring. The solution to this is to add an active storyline. This is usually done by bringing in a policeman or detective who’s chasing the bad guy. Halloween does it with Dr. Loomis. He knows Michael will go back to Haddonfield, which is why he goes back there, to try and catch him. This allows you to cut back and forth between Laurie’s passive storyline and Dr. Loomis’s active one.

Dramatic Irony Alert – Remember that dramatic irony is when the audience knows something the character does not. It’s a device you should be using a lot as a horror writer. After Michael kills the guy who’s gone to grab a beer for his girlfriend, Michael puts on a sheet and walks upstairs to the girlfriend, who’s waiting in bed. She giggles when she sees her “boyfriend” in the sheet, and asks for her beer. WE know this isn’t her boyfriend. SHE does not. Hence the dramatic irony. This allows us to squirm and scream, desperately hoping she’ll find out before it’s too late.

The False Kill – Nearly every horror movie has a false kill of the monster/killer near the end of the film. Unfortunately, audiences have gotten hip to this and don’t believe it anymore. “Make sure he’s dead!” they’re screaming as the hero ignores this obvious advice. So if you’re going to do this these days, you want to use every trick in the book to convince the audience the monster is dead. That way, when they come back, we’re genuinely surprised. Unfortunately, Halloween is not one of these movies. Laurie weakly stabs Michael, who falls down behind a couch, and Laurie assumes he’s dead without even checking. Of course, only minutes later, he’s back on her trail.

We’ll forgive a basic plot if we like the hero – Yesterday I said that a cool plot cannot survive weak characters. The opposite is also true. A bad plot can be saved by strong characters. And when I say “characters,” I’m really talking about your hero. This might be the biggest screenwriting hack of all. If you give us a hero we really like, we’ll pretty much forgive everything else. Everything in Halloween is predictable. A killer escapes a mental institution. Some teenagers are baby-sitting that night. The killer finds them and kills them one-by-one. That’s basic horror movie 101. But we like Laurie so much that we don’t need a big fancy plot with lots of twists and turns. All we want is for her to survive. If that happens, we’ll have enjoyed the experience.

Just the tips!

It’s Thanksgiving Week, which means it’s time to sneak away from people you’re convinced you can’t possibly be related to to work on your script! Thought I’d give you some help. Here are ten screenwriting tips I’m thankful for. Feel free to share the tips you’re thankful for in the comments section!

1) Nothing should ever go according to plan.

2) Have characters keep lies from one another. Their dialogue is a lot more interesting that way.

3) A simple disagreement can turn an ordinary scene into a good one.

4) Without a worthy villain, your hero’s journey will feel too easy.

5) Characters shouldn’t be talking about the past or the future. They should be dealing with the present.

6) Every solution in your hero’s journey should come at a cost.

7) Send your character into the place they least want to go.

8) A great character-creation hack is to give your character a primary trait that’s opposite of who they appear to be. A soft-spoken boxer. A pissy nun. An anxiety ridden yoga teacher. A jerky ice-cream truck driver.

9) Never underestimate the power of anticipation – there’s a reason they don’t start you on the top of the roller coaster. They make you go up that hill first.

10) A story only begins once there’s a problem.