Screenwriting

Leonardo Ramirez 2 I would say the most in demand will always be in demand no matter what. Action, action comedy, broad R comedy, rom-com, action thriller, psychological thriller, horror, grounded sci-fi, etc. Avoid period and massive fantasy / space-sci-fi. Animation writing is very tricky -- people don't sell animation features as specs. Get staffed on an animated show -- I would say apply to the Nickelodeon fellowship, but they unfortunately just shut down.

Got it Jon Hersh. Thanks so much.

Jon Hersh - two follow up questions if I may. #1 Do you see the animation question applying globally as well, or are there international markets where fantasy/sci-fi specs are more viable? Question #2: I only have one grounded fantasy script that's done well. Do managers typically want more than one strong script before starting a conversation even if that person has a few more in scifi genres that would have to wait? Thanks again.

Jon Hersh Thanks for responding. Your answers are well positioned. That's very helpful, Jon!!

Leonardo Ramirez 2 I can't speak to international animation, that's not my area. It only takes one great script to start a conversation. I've signed people off of just one great script, but it helps to have at least two in your arsenal to prove the first wasn't a fluke.

Hi, Salisu Abdullahi. I’m a Stage 32 Lounge Moderator. I wanted to let you know I moved your post from the Introduce Yourself Lounge to the Screenwriting Lounge since it's about screenwriting. You can talk about this in your introduction post, but you need to introduce/reintroduce yourself to the community. You could check out other posts in the Introduce Yourself Lounge to get ideas for your introduction post. Let me know if you have any questions.

Phone Booth is one of my favorite Contained Thrillers. It's a unique Contained Thriller because it's in a phone booth and everyone's watching the protagonist.

"At what point does a limited setting stop serving the story and start feeling repetitive or claustrophobic for the audience?" A Contained Thriller can start feeling repetitive and bore the reader/audience. I like to add exterior shots of the location and add exterior scenes so the story doesn't feel repetitive. I also like to have the protagonist/characters leave the house, building, etc. to go outside sometimes, like at the midpoint of the script.

"What's the smallest space you've successfully used for a full feature-length script, and how did you keep the visual variety and tension high?" I've set a script in a room (can't remember if it was a bedroom or living room). I keep the visual variety high by using objects and giving the monster/antagonist an unique appearance and outfit. I keep the tension high by adding conflict, dilemmas, stakes, a ticking clock, and twists.

Good question. Just watched 'The Long Walk' which translated into 'The Long Watch'. At some point - the walking and talking go to be too much for me. Perhaps aim for 75 pages and find a few side locations to mix it up!

"Hi Stephen,

That is a great point about The Long Watch (or The Long Walk). You nailed it—that feeling of the setting becoming repetitive is exactly what I'm trying to avoid with The Venice Glass House.

I absolutely agree that the solution is to aim for a tighter page count and find those strategic side locations to maintain variety. I'm taking your advice to heart!

I noticed you have fantastic credits, especially on thrillers like October Burn and your production work on A&E and PBS. As a writer/producer with a discerning eye for story and production, I'd love to hear your thoughts on my specific logline for The Venice Glass House—it's a contained thriller that I've designed for the micro-budget space, keeping production logistics in mind.

Would you be open to a quick Direct Message exchange or an email to see if there's any creative synergy between what I'm writing and the kind of high-impact, independent work you produce?"

The reason you'll never know. Better to move on and keep trying.

There can be a wide array of reasons. They already have a similar title, not what their clients are currently looking for at the moment, current market trends and so on. But the sands are always shifting and when one company is looking to do less of one genre, another may be looking to expand in that area. Its a business where sometimes you hear "no" a lot more than you hear "yes", but often you only need one "yes" to get things started. Take the positive feedback with you into your next meeting.

One of the boxes should be (but never is) "Is this concept easily marketable?" A lot of pitches check the boxes of "clear idea / high stakes" but the concept simply doesn't appeal to the masses.

I don't know if that's the case with your pitch, but I know it's the case with a lot of pitches I see.

John, I've been there, too.

This past July, I participated in Stage 32's Comedy Pitchfest; I sent Nikki Bohm a written pitch for a gangster spoof of mine, "Got Any More Bullets, Sister?"

Nikki really loved the pitch...in fact, she gave me perfect scores all around.

She passed on the project due to it being beyond the budget her production company wanted to work with.

So...I emailed success@stage32.com in search of a producer who's got the money to bring about "Bullets, Sister."

Pat Alexander found two candidates: Matt Sacca and Luke Kelly Clyne.

I went ahead and did research on both execs...and sent a written pitch to Luke earlier this month.

Won't be able to find out until at least next month if Luke likes "Bullets, Sister."

One thing I actually DO know: I'm glad you're here on Stage 32...and here's wishing you all the VERY BEST!

Here's something, and it's rarely discussed: many times the development execs, managers, and agents WILL NOT say anything negative to you about your script (TV or Film).

If they do they are fully aware that the word will get around and no one will pitch to them! Word of mouth can bring great success, and it can kill things fast (especially careers).

So it's better for them to say things like it's "one of kind", "it's unique", " it needs to be told", "it's actually great", AND, "it's not our brand", or "it's not in our wheelhouse", or "it's not right for us," or "the budget would be high."

What's a writer to do? Master storytelling and structure, master three to five genres, make sure it's commercial and marketable (as Michael David pointed out), make sure it's known what the stakes are in the story, who fights whom about what (conflict), and on and on. Enough of reading this, let's go break a leg!!

Yeahhhhh :))) Someday, we will be doing gigs :)))

I can't play the guitar, Sandra Isabel Correia, but it's a fictional band, so I can play the guitar. :D

I know :)) Me too :))

Honestly? I'm grateful for all of you. The platform in general. It's so supportive and informative. I just love it.

The lounges are where I'm mostly at. I believe in networking early. And doing that online is so much easier than in person. Not because of the convenience, but because of the pressure. I can't get nervous if I don't know who I'm talking to. I'm using my obliviousness to my advantage while it still exists!

I'm grateful for you too, Elle Bolan. I'm mostly in the Lounges too, and I'm less nervous networking online. Networking early is great advice! I used to write scripts and make pitch material, then network. Now, I network as I write scripts and get pitch material ready.

I have, Chidera Emmanuel. Sometimes I write about daily life on purpose, and sometimes I don't realize I'm doing it until later.

I haven't had formal screenwriting education. However, I do break movies down, analyze the writing, the structure, look for the breath moments.

I like to turn off my captions and volume and ad lib dialogue for movies and TV shows.

I've also broken episodes and features down and reoutlined them, reworked dialogue. Downloaded scripts to edit.

It drives my husband crazy.

Yep. It's very hard to switch off and I find myself overly critical now. But I probably appreciate those TV shows and films, which I can tell why their is an underlying genius to them.

Movement in every shot -Kurosawa.

Look for rich backgrounds in great directing. Although I am only a beginning director, I tried in SETESH 2025 (youtube) to make each shot have so many unusual backgrounds in depth that you could watch it 1000 times and never catch every object in each location. The new netflix on President Garfield has wonderful and deep background panoramas so you could see it 1000 times and never catch everything.

Absolutely. Every time I hear bad dialogue, I think, I can do better. And every time I hear great dialogue, I think, I hope I’ll be that good someday.

It only gets worse but you wouldn't change it! A great way to develop your screenwriting is to explore parts of films that give you strong emotional responses, then explore how the filmmaker and screenwriter achieved this. Screenplayed.com has videos that show a rolling script next to the corresponding scene in the final movie so you can see how the scene translated from the page to the screen.

The idea is excellent and would make a great movie. Your idea is different and touches a topic no one would talk about

Your story does touch on very key issues in the community that often go ignored. Predation on the LGBT Community has always been an easy out for serial killers and other criminals. It’s one of the reasons Dahmer was able to get away with so much. Mix that with the existence of downlow conservative men, and you have an interesting story!

Thank you everyone for the guidance and encouragement. As I am not a very confident person this word means a lot to me. thank you again guys. I will gonna disturb you guys in future.

You're welcome, DJ Gautam. Keep us posted on your script in the Your Stage Lounge (www.stage32.com/lounge/promotion).

Very important subject material that doesn't get talked about enough. I would say write it.

I wrote a "one sheet" ,more like five sheet, that I was really proud of. I think I finally realized how vital a one sheet is before going to draft. I used to treat it like a vague synopsis and figure I'll get to the details when I start writing. Now I think of it more as visualizing the scenes and really aiming to work out the character development and every nitty gritty turn so that I don't get lost or change the story midway once I start writing. I feel like a one sheet should take a few weeks to really distill and get feedback on. Once it's down, then that first draft is going to go so smoothly. My goals this week are to finish Act one mid-week and then go back and do an edit of it before I turn it in for my animation class.

Banafsheh Esmailzadeh, I love how deeply personal Finding Elpis is for you turning the fear of success into a creative meditation is such a powerful choice. It’s true that we often focus on the struggle before achievement, but exploring what happens after is such a fresh and necessary perspective.

A heptalogy gives your characters so much room to grow, and it’s exciting to hear how you’re embracing those curveballs in the “ten” arc of kishōtenketsu. That narrative detour will make the “ketsu” ending even more impactful, and I can feel your passion for the journey ahead. Cheering you on as you tackle SiR and CC. Your energy is contagious!

Maria Restivo Glassner, that’s fantastic! I love how you’ve reframed the one sheet as a deep dive into character and story rather than just a vague synopsis. Treating it as a blueprint for the emotional beats and scene flow will make your drafting process so much smoother, and it’s clear you’ve already unlocked that insight.

I’m cheering you on as you finish Act One and polish it for your animation class ; sounds like you’re building a strong foundation that will carry the whole project forward. I am cheering for you.

Thank you Sandra Isabel Correia, yes, it's also an ode to dreaming big which I've been praised for not being afraid to do, so the adventure is appropriately grand. And arguably the story is only really possible because it focuses on post-success, on top of achievements in ignorance. It also wouldn't be half as fun if the band got what they wanted, world fame.

Indeed, especially since now I have the room to explore all the adventures I had in mind that wouldn't have been possible in a shorter series (the plot necessitated the band being out of commission for two entries lol, both times it brought great conflict). Thanks so much, with any luck the writing gods will see me make great progress before my vacation lol~ hope you get good and fired up, too!

Sandra Isabel Correia Thank you so much. Will let you know how it is received.

You're welcome, Meriem Bouziani. I've had the same experience. I pitch my ideas to a few trusted people on here sometimes, and it helps me realize things about the ideas and develop them into scripts.

Thank you very much Jon Shallit

I’m still writing it. I’ll share it when it’s ready for script review.

that's great Maurice Vaughan

No one can truly gauge the reality of their work without reviews and insights from others.

I took some time before I started talking to people about my idea and found once I started telling people about the concept/idea, it was received better than I thought which is a lightning bolt to the soul when it comes to creative writing. The community here makes it even better with the support which I'm always thankful for..

Yes sharing your mind isn’t easy. You must be cautious not to absorb hurtful voices—those that can silence your thinking. As you said, Stage32 makes this safer and sharper. We, the creatives, are fortunate to have this space John Fife

Happy Thanksgiving, E Langley!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanks for this reminder E. Langley. Frank Capra’s masterpiece, “It’s A Wonderful Life,” is the gift of community. Our fellow creatives are our guardian angels, here to help us grow and succeed, especially after receiving a rejection. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone has/had a happy Thanksgiving! :) I’m living in Hungary (Europe), so I didn’t celebrate it, but it looks like a beautiful holiday!

Happy Turkey Day.