Worldbuilding is a key component of genre fiction, and with the new WriteMovies Sci-Fi and Fantasy Award now open, a lot of you will now be hard at work creating new worlds! But how do you do it successfully? Here are what we see as the first principles of great worldbuilding.
Writing is a skill like any other. Having a talent for it is a good start, but “practice” makes perfect and is what separates the professionals from everyone else. Luckily, there’s a simple tactic you can use to make sure this happens: writing every day.
One of the most important skills for a writer is getting the opening of your script right – and part of that is setting the tone. A great premise can be ruined if its presented in the wrong way, and this often happens if the screenplay doesn’t set the tone correctly. So what even is “tone”, and how do you get it right?
“One man’s life touches so many others, when he’s not there it leaves an awfully big hole.” IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is a perennial festive rewatch for a lot of families in the holiday season, and after the events of 2020, its themes have become even more relevant than ever. Jake Morgan discusses why that is – and what screenwriters can learn about writing Christmas movies…
The first deadline for our Winter 2021 Screenwriting Contest and Romance and Comedy Award is in just a couple of weeks, and we’re sure many of you are hard at work on your scripts.
To give you a helping hand, we thought we’d look back at the submissions to our Fall Contest and tell you what we learned from them – giving you a valuable insight into what works, what doesn’t, and what you need to do to really succeed in our contests and the wider industry! Here are our insights…
There’s nothing more frustrating for us than reading a script that’s been submitted before it’s ready. It’s got a killer concept, it’s packed full of great ideas, and all the right ingredients are there – but it’s undercooked. It needed more time.
‘Tis the season to be spooky! But while we prepare to announce the winner of our Horror Award on Friday, we mustn’t forget that Halloween is for the whole family, not just horror fans. So, here are our tips for writing a family Halloween movie…