Why Screenwriters Should Consider Theatre
Screenwriting is often said to be storytelling through pictures. And what lies at the emotional heart of most visual storytelling are characters; the actions and reactions of people. All our stories are about people going through an emotionally challenging time, be that in outer space (Gravity), on an urban housing estate (Fish Tank) or the Cornish countryside […]
What Drives Your Characters? By Phil Lowe
Regular readers of this guest blog will have realised by now that the world of psychology – where I work when I’m not writing – has limitless models to offer those of us who struggle to create believable characters. It’s been a few months since I last covered a motivation-related model (You can’t have forgotten […]
What Is Your Character’s Interpersonal Style? by Phil Lowe
Regular readers of my ScriptAngel guest blog (of course you are: Creating Conflict Using Personality Theory, Character Motivation) will know I divide my time between the world of business psychology and writing fiction, and use the former in the service of the latter. This time, a model to help you think about how your characters interact: the […]
Screenwriter Interview – Nicholas Gibbs
Script Angel’s very first Mentoring client in 2013, Nicholas Gibbs, was signed by an agent in January this year. Here Nicholas kindly shares his experience to-date of that journey towards a long-term screenwriting career. Hayley: Huge congratulations on signing with an agent last month. Can you tell me a bit about how that came about? Nicholas: […]
Creating Conflict Using Personality Theory by Phil Lowe
In this series of blogs, I’m bringing together my career as a writer with my “proper job” as a management coach and facilitator; I work by day with classic personality models which, by night, I use to help create authentic characters. In my last blog, I looked at a psychometric model called the SDI and […]
Character Motivation Using Personality Theory by Phil Lowe
Every writer – alright, apart from Steven Moffat – has a day job; mine is as a management coach and facilitator, using psychological models to help people not just perform at their best, but also – to give one example – deal with conflict in the workplace. Even if your only experience of psychometric testing […]
Writing Resolutions for the New Year
The world doesn’t owe you a screenwriting career. Harsh, but true. So, like everyone before you, you’re going to have to go out there and make it for yourself. And you can. Here are my top tips for new year writing resolutions to help you on your way. Surround yourself with your biggest cheerleaders. Dementors […]
Fusing Genres by Bobby Del Rio
When I was first starting out as a writer, I made the decision to constantly write the opposite of what I had previously written. I won a playwriting award in university, and parlayed that momentum into some media attention as a young playwright in Toronto. But with the ensuing media attention I received in the […]
Book Review: The Art of Screenplays by Robin Mukherjee
Screenwriting is a creative process and like all creative things, it’s a bit messy. Not that you’d think it reading some of the screenwriting books out there. Robin Mukherjee’s The Art of Screenplays: A Writer’s Guide is a rare thing – a screenwriting book that talks about story structure but never loses sight of what it’s really like […]