I’m sure you get this question all the time, so I’m really sorry if this is repetitive, but how do you start screenwriting? I’ve been writing fiction pretty much forever, but I’ve recently had a few ideas that would work best as a TV show. How do you actually start? What do I need to know before my first attempt? Do you need any qualifications to become an actual screenwriter? Thank you so much!
Oh that's okay, I'd love to talk screenwriting! Seriously. Come drop in with screenwriting asks whenever you want to.
If the concept of screenwriting is completely new to you, I suggest you start reading screenplays to familiarize yourself with how to properly format and build one. You can find free screenplays to read here and here, or you can search on google for scripts of TV-shows and movies that you like. Watching movies and TV-shows is VITAL.
how many pages should my script be?
A quick guide to screenwriting
Switching from novels to screenwriting
What words in a script should be capitalized?
What is a beat?
The importance of mundane scenes (TV-shows)
Implying tone and using parentheticals
How do you write action lines?
Serialized or episodic TV? (TV-shows)
Tip for writing plot twists
Scripts I read
How to learn screenwriting at home (video format) (with a ghost)
A degree isn't necessary to become a screenwriter (but it's useful in terms of learning the industry and building connections). Most important thing is that you know your terminology, how to structure a script, and how to write a compelling story.
videos i find myself frequently rewatching (most of these are film/television related, with some random topics and serotonin perks thrown in here and there)
how andrew wyeth made a painting
why miyazaki is a true romantic
over the garden wall: why is the unknown so familiar?
ginger rogers, katharine hepburn, and the 1941 oscars
the bisexual anti-fascist (marlene dietrich)
missed calls: a eulogy for the movie phone booth
edvard munch: what a cigarette means
parasite vs sunset boulevard: the disillusionment arc
anatomy of anatomy of a murder
saul bass’s movie posters
we’re all stupid and boring
the outsider’s guide to the social world
over the garden wall’s historical clothing inspirations
the psychology of heroism
comedy dies slow: the marvelous mrs. maisel
late night tv needs to change
the man from u.n.c.l.e (2015): style vs substance
when shakespeare got cool
the weird ways to adapt mary jane
aaliyah, britney, & the apathy of lifetime biopics
why chad and ryan switched clothes in high school musical 2
why megamind is a subversive masterpiece
school of rock’s perfect scene
the movies that inspired knives out
can 4 average people beat a pro crossword puzzler?
how david fincher uses pop music
the beach party genre
how to bring folklore to life
is the lonely genius real?
in defense of love at first sight
forming real human connections? sounds fake but ok
This is a compiled list of some of my favorite pieces of short horror fiction, ranging from classics to modern-day horror, and includes links to where the full story can be read for free. Please be aware that any of these stories may contain subject matter you find disturbing, offensive, or otherwise distressing. Exercise caution when reading. Image art is from Scarecrow: Year One.
PSYCHOLOGICAL: tense, dread-inducing horror that preys upon the human psyche and aims to frighten on a mental or emotional level.
“The Frolic” by Thomas Ligotti, 1989
“Button, Button” by Richard Matheson, 1970
“89.1 FM” by Jimmy Juliano, 2015
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892
“Death at 421 Stockholm Street“ by C.K. Walker, 2016
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1973
“An Empty Prison” by Matt Dymerski, 2018
“A Suspicious Gift” by Algernon Blackwood, 1906
CURSED: stories concerning characters afflicted with a curse, either by procuring a plagued object or as punishment for their own nefarious actions.
“How Spoilers Bleed” by Clive Barker, 1991
“A Warning to the Curious” by M.R. James, 1925
“each thing i show you is a piece of my death” by Stephen J. Barringer and Gemma Files, 2010
“The Road Virus Heads North” by Stephen King, 1999
“Ring Once for Death” by Robert Arthur, 1954
“The Mary Hillenbrand Cassette“ by Jimmy Juliano, 2016
“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs, 1902
MONSTERS: tales of ghouls, creeps, and everything in between.
“The Curse of Yig” by H.P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, 1929
“The Oddkids” by S.M. Piper, 2015
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” by Richard Matheson
“The Graveyard Rats” by Henry Kuttner, 1936
“Tall Man” by C.K. Walker, 2016
“The Quest for Blank Claveringi“ by Patricia Highsmith, 1967
“The Showers” by Dylan Sindelar, 2012
CLASSICS: terrifying fiction written by innovators of literary horror.
“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, 1843
“The Interlopers” by Saki, 1919
“The Statement of Randolph Carter“ by H.P. Lovecraft, 1920
“The Damned Thing” by Ambrose Pierce, 1893
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving, 1820
“August Heat” by W.F. Harvey, 1910
“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, 1843
SUPERNATURAL: stories varying from spooky to sober, featuring lurking specters, wandering souls, and those haunted by ghosts and grief.
“Nora’s Visitor” by Russell R. James, 2011
“The Pale Man” by Julius Long, 1934
“A Collapse of Horses” by Brian Evenson, 2013
“The Jigsaw Puzzle” by J.B. Stamper, 1977
“The Mayor Will Make A Brief Statement and then Take Questions” by David Nickle, 2013
“The Night Wire” by H.F. Arnold, 1926
“Postcards from Natalie” by Carrie Laben, 2016
UNSETTLING: fiction that explores particularly disturbing topics, such as mutilation, violence, and body horror. Not recommended for readers who may be offended or upset by graphic content.
“Survivor Type” by Stephen King, 1982
“I’m On My Deathbed So I’m Coming Clean…” by M.J. Pack, 2018
“In the Hills, the Cities” by Clive Barker, 1984
“The New Fish” by T.W. Grim, 2013
“The Screwfly Solution” by Racoona Sheldon, 1977
“In the Darkness of the Fields” by Ho_Jun, 2015
“The October Game” by Ray Bradbury, 1948
“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison, 1967
HAPPY READING, HORROR FANS!
from Saoirse Ronan
to Saoirse Ronan
How successful were you in drowning your sister?
of course I do
please reblog for sample size uwu
Film Noir Movies
People think that Film Noir is a reaction to World War II. Not true. Most of the great hard-boiled and noir pulp fiction came out during the 30’s, as a reaction to the great depression. Film noir didn’t become a big thing until after the war (post 1945), because the powers that be didn’t want to release pessimistic, down-ending films that would lower the country’s morale.
This could be a very loooong list. Hundreds of films in fact. So I am just going to list the films that I heard mentioned specifically in various film noir documentaries and books, as examples of great noir.
Film Noir Era 1945-1958
The Letter (1940)
The Stranger on The Third Floor (1940)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Glass Key (1942)
This Gun For Hire (1942)
Shadow of A Doubt (1943)
Double Indemnity (1944)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Laura (1944)
Murder My Sweet (1944)
Phantom Lady (1944)
Detour (1945)
Fallen Angel (1945)
Leave Her To Heaven (1945)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Scarlet Street (1945)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Black Angel (1946)
The Blue Dahlia (1946)
The Dark Corner (1946)
The Dark Mirror (1946)
Decoy (1946)
Gilda (1946)
The Killers (1946)
Notorious (1946)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
The Stranger (1946)
Body and Soul (1947)
Born To Kill (1947)
Brute Force (1947)
Crossfire (1947)
Dark Passage (1947)
Dead Reckoning (1947)
Desperate (1947)
Kiss of Death (1947)
Lady In The Lake (1947)
Nightmare Alley (1947)
Out of The Past (1947)
Ride The Pink Horse (1947)
T-Men (1947)
The Big Clock (1948)
Call Northside 777 (1948)
Cry of The City (1948)
Force of Evil (1948)
He Walked By Night (1948)
Hollow Triumph (1948)
Key Largo (1948)
The Lady From Shanghai (1948)
The Naked City (1948)
Pitfall (1948)
Raw Deal (1948)
The Street With No Name (1948)
They Live By Night (1948)
Act of Violence (1949)
Border Incident (1949)
Criss-Cross (1949)
Impact (1949)
The Reckless Moment (1949)
The Set-Up (1949)
Thieves’ Highway (1949)
The Third Man (1949)
White Heat (1949)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
D.O.A. (1950)
The File on Thelma Jordan (1950)
Gun Crazy (1950)
In A Lonely Place (1950)
Night and The City (1950)
Panic In The Streets (1950)
Side Street (1950)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Where Danger Lives (1950)
Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950)
Ace In The Hole (1951)
His Kind of Woman (1951)
On Dangerous Ground (1951)
The Prowler (1951)
Strangers On A Train (1951)
The Bad and The Beautiful (1952)
Clash By Night (1952)
Kansas City Confidential (1952)
The Narrow Margin (1952)
Sudden Fear (1952)
Angel Face (1953)
The Big Heat (1953)
The Blue Gardenia (1953)
The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
Niagra (1953)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Crime Wave (1954)
Human Desire (1954)
Rear Window (1954)
The Big Combo (1955)
The Desperate Hours (1955)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The Night of The Hunter (1955)
The Killing (1956)
While The City Sleeps (1956)
The Wrong Man (1956)
Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Vertigo (1958)
Neo-Noir Era 60’s-90’s
À bout de soufflé/ Breathless (1960)
Shoot The Piano Player (1960)
Underworld, U.S.A. (1961)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Harper (1966)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Dirty Harry (1971)
The French Connection (1971)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Chinatown (1974)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Body Heat (1981)
Blade Runner (1982)
Blood Simple (1984)
To Live and Die In L.A. (1985)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
The Grifters (1990)
King of New York (1990)
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
New Jack City (1991)
The Silence of The Lambs (1991)
Basic Instinct (1992)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
True Romance (1993)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Devil In A New Dress (1995)
Heat (1995)
Se7en (1995)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Fargo (1996)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Payback (1999)
Once upon a time I worked in this little burger/coffee/ice cream shop and a lady came in one winter and asked if we had a caramel apple drink and we were like ‘well we have cider’ and she was like ‘no I don’t remember what it’s called but this place made a drink that was chai tea, apple cider, and caramel’ and Breezy offered to try and make something for her but she changed her mind and left so Breezy and I were like ‘alright let’s try this’ because we had chai tea, instant cider mix, a shit ton of caramel, instant hot water from the espresso and too much free time.
And let me tell you it was delightful. It tastes like watching the leaves changing color and dancing in the wind. It tastes like picking out pumpkins and gourds and fresh apples at the farm up north. It tastes like witches and freedom.
I make it every year now and this year I walked in the house on the morning of October first with all the ingredients and shouted ‘FALL DRINK’ and my roommates were like ‘????’ so I made them Fall Drink and now every time they get home from work they’re like ‘Fall Drink pls?????’
Anyway I remember literally nothing else about that woman but I’m very grateful to her.
Hi there, just wondering if you have any recommendations for classic (?) gothic literature (stuff like Dracula or Picture of Dorian gray). Thanks!
Yes ? Yes, yes, yes, very much so. I cannot get enough when it comes to gothic literature (and what sprung from it). Here goes :
The Turn of the Screw, Henry JamesThe Lifted Veil, George EliotSeven Gothic Tales, Isak DinesenJane Eyre, Charlotte BrontëVillette, Charlotte BrontëWuthering Heights, Emily BrontëMelmoth the Wanderer, Charles MaturinThe Italian, Ann RadcliffeThe Castle of Otranto, Horace WalpoleThe Horla and Other Stories, Guy de MaupassantThe Coffee-Pot and Other Stories, Théophile GautierMy Cousin Rachel, Daphné du MaurierRebecca, Daphné du MaurierDon’t Look Now, Daphné du MaurierFrankenstein, Mary Bysshe ShelleyThe Castle of Argol, Julien GracqThe Unicorn, Iris MurdochThe Moonstone, Wilkie CollinsLa Vénus d’Ille, Prosper MériméeThe Haunting of Hillhouse, Shirley JacksonWe Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley JacksonThe Shining, Stephen KingCarrie, Stephen KingCarmilla, Joseph Sheridan Le FanuThe Queen of Spades, Alexandr PushkinTales, Edgar Allan PoeThe House of the Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
—and more. Early gothic fiction shattered into a multiplicity of related literary movements and ideas that are still going strong today; reading one gothic novel automatically brings you to seek another which is either fully cited, or subtly praised in its successor. Some of these are still on my to-be-read list, but I had to suggest them anyway—haunted castles ! puritanic secrecy ! slow psychological warfare ! wild moors and devil pacts ! What could go wrong ?