Now write!: Screenwriting : exercises by today's best writers and teachers

CHOOSING YOUR STORY. Start with a conflict / Mardik Martin, Hunter Hughes The cringe exercise / Hal Ackerman Trusting yourself / Alan Watt Note card R&D / Brad Riddell Concept is king / Chandus Jackson When Sally met Harry / Barri Evins The comfort zone / Christina M. Kim Finding our story / Paula C. Brancato GET WRITING. Binding and gagging the internal critic / Kim Krizan The talking cure / Wesley Strick The almighty verb / Beth Serlin Throw the book away / Alexander Woo Feeling the music / Daniel Calvisi It's the read: writing great film narrative / Glenn M. Benest Dream on / Nicholas Kazan Random thoughts / William M. Akers Analyzing your characters / Susan Kouguell The power of negative thinking / Kevin Cecil When great writing meets a great actor: writing for a star / Hester Schell Police investigation / Brad Schreiber Write truthfully in imaginary circumstances: the mythology inside you / Mark Sevi Postcards from the edge of creativity / Sam Zalutsky Found in translation / Coleman Hough STRUCTURE: The most important thing I know and teach / Chris Soth The character-action grid / David Trottier Writing in the dark / Jim Herzfeld The newspaper exercise / Linda Seger 21 questions to keep you on track / Neil Landau Key things to know about your script before you write / Barbara Schiffman Four magic questions of screenwriting / Marilyn Horowitz Creating unpredictability using subgoals and plot twists / Richard Stefanik Your outline is your ilfeline / Michael Ajakwe, Jr. The tool kit: resuscitative remedy for writer's block and blank-page elimination The genre game / Bonnie MacBird

THEME. How to move a pile of dirt / Danny Rubin

The emotionally charged icon / Karey Kirkpatrick

True love / Michael Hauge

Finding universal themes / Jen Grisanti

Refining the idea / Stephen Rivele

The thematic line of dialogue / Barry Brodsky

The emotional outline / Karl Iglesias

Writing from experience, or, Grandma's teeth fell into the soup again / Paul Chitlik

Change your perspective / Michael Ray Brown

The union of opposites / Scott Anderson

From end to end: the creative compass / Michael Feit Dougan

CRAFTING SCENES. Rhythms, levels, and the proper respect / Michael Genet

Some things are better left unsaid / Colleen McGuinness

Self-knowledge availed us plenty / Tommy Swerdlow

What happens next? / Sara Caldwell

Scenes as concepts / Craig Kellum

Crafting the kick-ass scene / David Atkins

Visual storytelling / Larry Hama

What lies beneath / Allison Burnett

Write cinematic scenes / Stephen V. Duncan

I know what you're thinking: dialogue, context, subtext / T. J. Lynch

One-page character introduction / Valerie Alexander

Better than irony / Howard Allen

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. On creating character / Syd Field

Give me a dramatic truth or give me death! / Bill Johnson

Creating characters who work for you, not against you / Linda Cowgill

Approach character like an actor ... from the inside out! / Madeline DiMaggio

The character's trailer shot / Billy Mernit

The scene that doesn't exist / Christine Conradt

The key to charismatic characters / James Bonnet

Go ask Rosenkrantz / Glenn Gers

Character bones / David Skelly

The riddle of the sphinx / Marilyn R. Atlas

The character diary / Douglas J. Eboch

Getting inside your character's head by becoming her pen / Laura Scheiner

Life before fade in: / Pamela Gray

Loving and loathing: how to get into your characters / Richard Walter

Getting to know your character / Leslie Lehr

VERBAL AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION. Find your inner actor / Amy Holden Jones

On dialoguing, the screenwriting anarchist's way / Peter Briggs

Nonverbal communication / Andrew Osborne

The big eavesdrop / Mark Evan Schwartz

The twitch: objects as emotions / William C. Martell

Funny faces: tips on writing animation / Aydrea Walden ten Bosch

False emotion / David Freeman

Building between the lines / Judy Kellem

Using metaphors in comedy / Steve Kaplan

Pick up a party line / Jennifer Skelly

Backward brainstorming / Pilar Alessandra

Hurt me, hurt me! (Oh, and help me make my script better)

The jewel case outline / Jim Strain

"Aloud,' he cried!" / Jayce Bartok

Screenwriters: stop shooting yourself in the foot! / Charles Deemer

The first ten pages / Ken Rotcop

Prose (and cons) / Billy Frolick

What to do when you're stuck on a creative problem / Peter Myers

Button it: the cure for overwriting / Devorah Cutler-Rubenstein

Finishing a script: the actor pass / Glen Mazzara

NOW WHAT? Creating the killer log line / Bill Lundy

What if it were your money? / Heather Hale

How to find and get an agent / Michele Wallerstein

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