InkTip will offer ScreenwritingU’s ProSeries graduates special placement of their loglines and synopses on the website’s Executive Index and InkTip Magazine that goes out to 30,000 producers – print and online.

The ProSeries Alumni is ScreenwritingU’s elite screenwriting group where over 130 screenwriters have either sold or optioned their scripts, landed paid writing assignments from producers, and/or secured agents or managers

See the entire story on Yahoo News.

Please be aware that many of the Finalists, Semi-finalists, and Quarter-finalists are still in play.  As those contests announce the next level, we’ll update this.

WINNER

Honolulu International Film Festival – Kevin Brodie
International Film Festival Ireland – Joan Chandler
Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood – Kevin Brodie
Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood – Alison McMahan
Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood – John Leary
Los Angeles Movie Awards – Kevin Brodie
Mountain International Film Festival  – Kevin Brodie
Scriptapalooza TV – Natasha Williams
StoryPros International Screenplay Contest – Keith Davidson
Table Read Your Screenplay – Stephen Hoover

FINALIST

Bridge International Screenplay Competition – Ian Hamilton
Cinequest International Film Festival – Kevin Brodie
Ed Burns Scripped Contest – Stephen Hoover
Indie Producer “Animate Your Project” Contest – Cheryl Farr
Jacksonville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition – Alison McMahan
Jacksonville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition – John Leary
Mexico International Film Festival – Angela Page
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 – Rebecca Ortese
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 – Lee Tidball
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 – John Arends
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 – Nevada Grey
Pavaline Studios Environment Short Script – Ann Kimbrough
Pavaline Studios Environment Short Script – Nevada Grey
Pavaline Studios Environment Short Script – Marla Hayes
Pavaline Studios Environment Short Script – Orlanda Szabo
Pavaline Studios Environment Short Script – Jeremy Simmons
Screenplay Search Screenplay Competition – Karen Mueller Bryson
Scriptapalooza TV – Natasha Williams
Script Pimp Screenwriting Competition – Stephen Hoover
Slamdance Writing Competition – Alison McMahan
Slamdance Writing Competition – John Leary
Spike TV Pilot Screenplay Contest – John Radtke
Tableread My Screenplay Contest – Pat Fitzgerald
Tableread My Screenplay Contest – Deborah Stenard
UC Riverside Screenwriting Contest – Melanie Grimes
Underground Exposure Film Festival – Kevin Brodie
Ventura International Film Festival – Kevin Brodie
Waterfront International Film Festival – Kevin Brodie

SEMI-FINALIST

2010 American Screenwriting Competition – Kevin Lee Miller
AAA Creative Screenwriting Contest – Dale K. Pitman
AAA Creative Screenwriting Contest – Clark Ransom
AOF Festival – Lois Wickstrom
AOF Festival – Jean Lorrah
Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition – Kevin Lee Miller
Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition – Stephen Hoover
Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition -  Kevin Lee Miller
Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition – Stephen Hoover
Cherub Films Screenplay Contest – Kevin Brodie
Eerie Horror Fest, 2010 – Rob Ingalls
Final Draft Big Break Screenplay Competition – Alison McMahan
Final Draft Big Break Screenplay Competition – John Leary
Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, 2010 – Kevin Lee Miller
Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, 2010 – Evette Vargas
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 -  Melanie Grimes
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 – John Connell
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 -  Cate Caldwell
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 – Matt Pearson
Scriptapalooza Annual Screenwriting Competition – Margaret Riseley
SoCal Film Fest Feature Length Screenplay Contest – Alison McMahan
SoCal Film Fest Feature Length Screenplay Contest – John Leary

QUARTER-FINALIST

Blue Cat Screenplay Competition, 2010 – Kevin Brodie
Blue Cat Screenplay Competition, 2010 – Naomi Lamont
Blue Cat Screenplay Competition, 2010 -  Ricki Holmes
Creative World Awards – Naomi Lamont
Cinestory Screenwriting Awards – Mike Davidson
Fade In Awards – Kevin Brodie
Los Angeles Reel Film Festival – Joan Chandler
NexTV Screenwriting Awards – Kevin Brodie
Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, 2010 – Kevin Brodie
Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, 2010 – Ricki Holmes
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 – Kevin Brodie
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 -  Michele Koop
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 – Stephen Hoover
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 – Gary Sharp
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 -  Mike Davidson
Page International Screenwriting Awards, 2010 – Clark Ransom
Scriptapalooza Annual Screenwriting Competition – Natasha E. Williams
Scriptapalooza Annual Screenwriting Competition – Chris Craig
Scriptapalooza TV – Natasha Williams
Silver Screenwriting Competition – Stephen Hoover

Script Magazine listed us as #1 in their upcoming issue in an article titled “Top 9 Online Screenwriting Courses, Plus One.”  

You can see it in the July/August issue that has already been sent out to their online subscribers and will soon be in the book stores. 

Our thanks to Script Mag.

There are two ways to become a great screenwriter.  One is to find your “natural talent.”  The other is to build in all the skills, understanding, and creative process that can express that talent in the most amazing way possible. 

You need to do both.   Today, I’ll map out a plan for writing from your core – from that natural talent that you have deep inside of you. 

Keep this in mind:  Becoming a great screenwriter is a growth process.  Done right, you’ll mature a bit more every day – in writing skill, in philosophy, and in creatively expressing yourself.

1.  What are you naturally good at that can help your screenwriting? 

A quick search will likely reveal some of your natural talents.  Maybe you can visualize a story.  Maybe you come up with good dialogue.  Maybe you can dream up unique and interesting characters.  Maybe you just love movies. 

Make a list of what you just naturally do well having to do with writing.   But don’t stop with the obvious.   Keep looking for a deeper understanding of what you are naturally talented at.   The more you understand your own talents, the more you’ll be able to focus on them to deliver your own unique voice in your screenplays.

Every day, you can discover something more about what you are naturally good at.  Brilliant talent isn’t always easy to understand or see.   Keep looking deeper. 

And with each discovery, your TALENT emerges.

2.  What interesting situations have you lived that you can bring to your characters and stories? 

We’ve all had ups and downs in life.  Love and tragedy.  Successes and failures.  Embarrassments and proud moments.  Breakdowns and breakthroughs. 

Just as important, we all have a public face and a private face.  We’ve said one thing and meant another.  We’ve been both courageous and fearful .  We’ve had times we’ve won and felt like losers, but also had times we lost and felt like a winner.  Life has given us enough experience to build the most interesting situations and characters. 

Find those moments – especially the paradoxical moments – and fill your stories with them. 

3.  How can you use your imagination to bring those moments to life in a unique way?

The most common thing for people to do is write exactly what happened to them.  They put their characters in common situations and have them do common things.

Rather than that, what if you took your experiences and understanding and translated that into something amazing?   Your experience of being embarrassed at dinner becomes a tabloid publicized humiliation for your character.   Your experience of being pulled over by a traffic cop becomes your character being arrested for multiple felonies someone else did. 

Use your imagination to transform your experiences into an emotional roller-coaster ride that causes your character to grow in some amazing way while still feeling real.  

What makes it feel real is that it comes from your experience and understanding.  What makes it amazing is when you use your imagination to set it in a whole new context or to give it to us in an unexpected way. 

Can you take what you know and imagine it in an even more entertaining way?   You bet you can. 

4.  What skills will you learn that will elevate the quality of your screenwriting?

If you don’t think this game is about skill, you need to look again.  Read any great screenplay and you’ll see a combination of character depth, subtext, meaning, setup/payoff, and interest – all designed into single lines of dialogue. 

Those happen because the writer spent years learning ALL OF THOSE SKILLS.   Translating the story in your mind onto the page is all about having the right skills.  Higher quality skills equals a stronger translation of your vision and a more compelling read. 

But don’t worry; you’ll learn those skills as you progress.   You’ll discover them as you read produced screenplays and experiment with your own scripts or you can learn them even faster in ScreenwritingU classes because we give you exactly what you need to succeed.

Whichever route you take, make learning high-level screenwriting skills a priority now.

5.  How are you going to test your writing to make sure it is professional?

At some point, you need to find out how good you really are – and how much improvement you truly need to be professional.  

One way to think of it is climbing a ladder.  You write a script and move to rung 1.   You submit it to a contest and maybe you don’t even place.  So you take some classes, write another script…and your script is a Quarter-finalist.  You’ve moved to rung 2. 

Go back, apply more of #1 – #4 (natural talent, experience, imagination, and skill) and you make it to Finalist.  Not bad.  You’re on rung 3.  Now take some more classes, write another script, get script consulting, and surprise; you win the contest.  Rung 4. 

But does that make you professional?  So you test that script against the market and are turned down by everyone.  Give up?  Hell no.  You’ve come this far and with a bit more work, you’ll get where you want to go.  Apply more of #1 – #4.  Take better classes, get a better script consultant, write a better script…and you get optioned.  Rung 5. 

You continue moving up that ladder until one day, you’re at the top – A-List. 

Notice two things – 1.  You kept going back to your core and most likely, each time, you discovered something new about your natural talents.  2.  You kept learning, growing, and finding even better ways to express yourself in screenplays. 

Stay on this path and soon, you’ll be seen as “naturally talented” — and you’ll be paid for it!

…Or maybe it’ll just be a bit more difficult to become a pro. Either way, you’ll want to really consider these guidelines as you write or rewrite your screenplay.

Writing Screenplays By Commandment

1. Entertain us…or it’s over!

Entertainment is the number one reason that people go to movies. Every producer and agent knows that. So it should be the #1 focus of your screenwriting. Become a master at making any character or situation entertaining and you’ll be a writer in demand.

To be blunt, if there is anything in your script that doesn’t entertain, fix it.

2. Make EVERYTHING more interesting.

The industry is filled with readers who are fed a gourmet diet of professional screenplays. If you want yours to stand out, it has to captivate their attention and cause them to forget that they are doing a job.

This should be an ongoing campaign of yours. Make your scenes more interesting. Make your characters more interesting. Make your dialogue more interesting. Make everything more interesting.

3. Give us a lead character we can’t stop following.

Professional screenwriters intentionally create characters we want to follow. They are unique, yet familiar. We can relate to them and want to go on the journey with that character.

In general, your protagonist should be the perfect person to lead us deep into this story and the conflict that is about to occur. Don’t settle for a good lead. Go for great.

4. Promise us something special…and deliver on it.

Somehow, you have to keep people reading until the last page. Here’s a solution.

About 15 years ago, I read a book called “A Story Is A Promise” by Bill Johnson. Since then, I’ve always looked at a script from the perspective of “What is the promise you’re making to the reader/audience and how do you keep it in a unique way?”

Essentially, you are promising some major achievement by the protagonist or some big confrontation that will happen in the 3rd Act between protag and antag. If the promise is strong enough, we’ll read every page to see what happens.

5.  Show us deeper meaning.

Deeper meaning can be built into the plot, character, situations, actions, and dialogue of a script. It doesn’t have to be profound, just beneath the surface…and perceived by the audience.

Audiences and readers just don’t appreciate on-the-nose writing. Subtext gives them a chance to interact with the film. They have an internal experience of the story because they are interpreting what the dialogue and actions really mean.

Because of that, it is just as important to take care of the subtext of a story as it is to create the surface story.

6. Put your characters through hell.

Great parents take care of their children and don’t let harm come to them. Great writers put their characters in the worst possible places to challenge their beliefs and physical limitations.

Don’t get the two jobs mixed up. Audiences don’t go to movies to see characters lead safe lives. They want to see your characters take risks, experience danger, and barely escape from challenging situations.

Writing screenplays will make you a tough task-master.  By your final draft, your characters should hate you for all the terrible things you did to them.

7. Free up your dialogue so you can express more character.

Beginning writers often fill their dialogue with exposition and story details, thus reducing the amount of character and creativity that shows up in that dialogue. Don’t do it.

Instead, put the exposition, information, and story details into the action and situations.

For example, instead of a trainer telling a new boxer that a certain philosophy doesn’t work, have him put the character in the boxing ring and learn it by having his ass kicked. Now, the trainer doesn’t have to lecture. In fact, he is free to talk about anything – breakfast, politics, his favorite dog, etc. – because the real meaning is being delivered through the action.

It completely frees you up so you can be much more creative with your dialogue.

8.  Turn cliches into fresh ideas.

In the film industry, a cliché is defined as “something we’ve seen before.” If you write a script with the same plot or the same lead characters or the same situations, people will balk at them.

Audiences want to see familiar stories told in different ways and familiar characters with something special about them. That means that your characters, situations, actions, and dialogue need to have something unique to them.

Your challenge: Hunt down every cliché in your script and brainstorm more unique ways to accomplish their purpose.  Give them a twist or unique spin or different voice.  It takes a bit of work, but it instantly improves your screenplay.

9. Give yourself permission to write shit in your first draft…

…and push yourself for perfection in your final draft. Not the other way around.

This is a better strategy for writing screenplays than trying to be perfect on the first draft and shoving yourself into writer’s block.

First drafts are the time for total freedom of expression, not criticizing your writing. You want to discover what you can about your story, characters, etc.

On the other side, writers often send drafts to producers that aren’t even close to ready. That’s the time to bring out your internal critic and make sure this is a perfect draft.

The more in sync you are with your creative process, the faster you’ll achieve perfection.

10. Rethink your script…until it is the most amazing it can be.

This is the ultimate challenge of a professional screenwriter – having to rethink the same script over and over until you discover the perfect way to tell this story.

Even if you think your story or character is perfect, you should have the skills to re-envision it in many different ways. Not only will this help you write a better story, it will also help you work with production companies and Studios when they request script changes.

Make those 10 Commandments part of your daily writing and someday, you’ll be soon be writing screenplays like the Hollywood writing Gods.

——

And if you want to dramatically improve your ability to write screenplays, check out ScreenwritingU’s screenwriting classes.

These 10 Commandments are built into our classes.  That may be why Script Magazine rated our classes #1 in their “Top 9 Online Screenwriting Courses.”