Screenwriting Tricks for Authors in June

I'm teaching not one, but TWO of my rare Screenwriting Tricks For Authors workshops in June - the DC Romance Writers weekend conference and the five-day intensive I do every year at the West Texas AMU Writers Academy. If you're in the DC area, you can still sign up for the DC conference
at an amazing rate - and you don't have to be a romance writer to benefit!

I've been leading my workshop participants through some basic prep that would work really well for Junowrimo prep as well - here are the questions if you want to play along.

     1.  The genre of your book. 
 
     2.  The premise of your book - the story in one or two sentences.  (Read about premise here. )

(If you DON'T have a book idea yet, that's fine, too - just let us know and we’ll give you alternate homework.)

     3 .  This is the most important:  Compile a list of TEN books and films (at least five films, please)  in your genre that are somewhat similar to your book structurally.    

We learn best from the storytellers and stories (in any medium) that have most inspired us. And as authors we can learn a whole new dimension of storytelling by looking specifically at films that have inspired us and that are similar to what we're writing. 

     4. For extra bonus points, write out the premises of each film on your list (in one or two lines, only. This will be hard, but very, very good for you. ) 
 

For people who are struggling with nailing down a premise sentence, it helps to answer these questions first:

• Who’s the story about? 

• What’s the setting? 

• Who’s the antagonist? 

• What’s the conflict? 

• What are the stakes?

- Alex