Screenwriting: From the Trenches

100 EPISODES! Rob & Kay have defied Vegas odds and have made it to episode 100, in which they wax poetic on the subject of "Is Your Script Ready?" Ready for what? To be sent to producers/managers/agents -- but first it's time to take a long, hard look at your script and see how it holds up against a checklist that Rob & Kay breakdown for you listeners. Thank you so much for s...

Rob & Kay want to encourage you to FINISH YOUR SCRIPT. In the episode they tell you why a finished script is currency and how ideas, while they may seem important, are essentially worthless. They also talk about how to put your enjoyment into the finishing of a screenplay and how that can keep you moving forward. Basically, if you needed a swift kick in the pants to finish that script, take a...

Rob & Kay interview Brock Heasley , whose upcoming sci-fi film, The Shift , based on his microbudget short ( of the same name ), readies itself for theatrical release in December care of Angel Studios . Our Screenwriting duo pick their guest's brain over a multitude of topics, including: what needed to change from the short over to the movie, how Brock struggled with writing to budget cons...

This week, Rob & Kay are talking about how to (safely) “adapt” your style, in order to make YOUR script stand out from the crowd of stale, sterile, scripts out there adhering to the stodgy, and frankly typical, screenwriting formatted norms. Our Weekly Resource: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We've got a list of scripts that broke screenwriting format, and yet SOLD: Kate , A Quiet Place , The Matrix...

Kay has Covid and Rob is sassy! But they both have Writer's Block, so the two of them sit down, as always to break down the phenomenon that is tHe bLoCk, as well as how to fight it while prioritizing your own mental health/general well-being. Our Weekly Resource: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We've got an article from Variety , entitled, Script Secrets From Hollywood’s Top Creators: How to Conquer Wri...

This week Rob and Kay interview Mario O. Moreno , screenwriter, novelist, and tagger to discuss how to potentially adapt your screenplay into a novel (or why you should consider doing so). Our Weekly Resource: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out Mario’s book on Amazon to support a fellow writer. Notes From the Episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Zack's Original Instagram vid...

With a strike going on, it's more important than ever to know how/where to look for a script read, as well as who should be reading. Rob & Kay do a very DEEP DIVE into what it takes to get, what avenues provide what results, and whether or not you're even ready to have your script read. Our Weekly Resource: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Darious Britt , a former guest of the show , is one of our favo...

It's a strike episode! The Double Strike of SAG-AFTRA joining the WGA on the picket lines caused Kay & Rob to make an episode that serves as a treatise on the situation -- the pertinent drama, info, and most importantly, how does it affect our writing. So strap in, this is a biggun. Our Weekly Resource: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Fran Drescher's Press Speech for the SAG Strike is Free here on Youtu...

Rob & Kay got Cindy Begel to sit down with them and discuss mentoring -- her experiences coming up as the medium of television was revealing itself, as well as her own latter day efforts to pay forward the mentorship given to her during the early years of her career. Cindy was a lovely guest and even talks about how she found a writer's group for Rob! Our Weekly Resource: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ed So...

Thanks to MidtownATLGal for the lovely FIVE STAR REVIEW. We love to hear from our listeners and get feedback, no matter what it is, which is why we're offering this chance, at the half year mark, to ask us what you'd like from us, going forward. We have fun guests lined up and some epic episodes planned, but in the end this is all about what you guys want/need. Also PLEASE RATE & REVIE...

This week, Rob & Kay get into the weeds about the tone of a screenplay while dealing with the MASSIVE amounts of drama that surrounded Screenwriting Twitter this week. Our Weekly Resource: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Beverly Boy’s “ How to Describe the Tone of Film ”? This includes various suggestive words to help you get some ideas of the tone of your project. Also, Beverly Boy specializes in building sets, so...

*Disclaimer, we are not lawyers -- even though today's guest, Rob's good friend (and former writer's group member), Pamela Nash, is. She has also acted on his behalf as de facto legal counsel for all of his screenwriting contracts -- and some for this podcast as well -- and breaks down the vague and (what is often) unenforceable language of various legal contracts that Rob & Kay ha...

Kay was MIA this week, so Rob invited Julia , her writing partner, to sit in her chair this week as they interviewed Brock Swinson , who comes to the table to talk about Ink By the Barrel , a book based on Brock's various interviews with writers from over the years, which extracts his methodology on how to be a prolific writer! Our Weekly Resource: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We’ve got two resources this week, both...

Act Two is essentially the entire movie. Rob and Kay break down how to keep it moving, how to setup while you're paying off and go in deep on the dreaded MIDPOINT (scary!) Our Weekly Resource: ⁠⁠⁠ You’ve got homework this week. As Professor Tuxford and her Partner-in-Podcasting have concocted a YouTube Playlist of videos on the subject of a second act. As we’ve stated again (and again) in this...

Get a twist wrong and audiences will reject your movie. Get it right and your story can become iconic. Rob & Kay are here to help you figure out how to engineer the latter in a time when audiences are at their most savvy. How to setup, then subvert the payoff, when to go left and when to read the room and give the audience what they want. And finally, when to jump out of your movie right in th...

This week Rob & Kay interview Lucas McNelly , writer/director of the microbudget thriller film, Up Country , to discuss the perils, pitfalls, and the promise of working in the horror-adjacent space. Our Weekly Resource: Sundance Collab – yes, Sundance has a website with paid and free membership with videos on writing, directing, financing, and production as well as Writer Cafe’s where you can...

Sometimes you have to take a long, hard, look at your writing and ask yourself if you've birthed a turkey . It happens, even to the best of us , the question becomes -- what to do next? And that's where Rob & Kay come in, with advice for not only when you should admit to bad writing, but also when maybe folks -- when everyone -- may be wrong about what you've written. Our Weekly Re...

From BUFFY to BREAKING BAD , the writing landscape has changed very rapidly to include new mandates, tropes and styles of storytelling. Rob & Kay take a look at what's come before -- inspired by Rob's recently viewing of Severance -- to hopefully give listeners an insight as to how to write to new places in storytelling with their own scripts. Our Weekly Resource: We’ve recommended Les...

This week Rob & Kay talk rejection. How to deal with it, what we can learn from it, and what it can teach us. Our Weekly Resource: Lee Jessup’s Article: “ ⁠Rejection is a Bitch⁠ ” Notes From the Episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Zack's Original Instagram video⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (for our Twitter Drama Bumper) " I Killed Optimus Prime " Strike Rules & FAQ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠How to Make a Movie for $10...

This week we’re talking money, specifically in terms of writing (horror) screenplays that sell, and to help with that, we have a guest! Writer of both TV and Film Seth M. Sherwood . They talk the benefits of writing spec scripts (even if you won't likely sell them), how "original" horror movies get made (and who gets to make them), how A24 didn't invent "Elevated Horror&quot...

Nuisance or necessary? Everyone has their opinions. Rob & Kay give you theirs on how to write them, why we need them, and which are their favorites. Our Weekly Resource: This week’s resource is…subtext, specifically a video from StudioBinder on YouTube as they talk about, not only the different types of subtlety, but when to employ it, how actors play what’s on the page, and also various examp...

This week Rob & Kay interview with Sidney Morss whose videos on TikTok have over 13 MILLION LIKES! We talk about her writing (near) daily sketches -- as long as her mental health permits -- and go deep into the process off how to make daily videos, where her videos not only have to be comedic, but frequently satisfy sponsors , too. Our Weekly Resource: This week’s resource is our guest. She ha...

This week Rob & Kay have decided to discuss writing for the (arguably bigger) Non Union Market, and to help with that, we have an interview with Canadian writer/director, Heather Taylor , whose film, Lethal Love , is currently available on Netflix . Our Weekly Resource: Scriptnotes. the sort of, de facto screenwriting podcast, has re-released episode 193 that is kind of the definitive guide to...

This week Kay & Rob talk about how the process of writing films that aren't necessarily written, and to help with that, we have an interview with returning guest , Jeremy Lalonde , whose movie, “ Ashgrove ”, is currently on tour, and in theaters. Our Weekly Resource: SoCreate ’s screenwriting Beta is out and they are looking for folks to try out their program, so feel free to take advantag...

This week we’ve got an interview with Angela Bourassa who’s movie, “ If You Were The Last ” just played this years, SXSW. We discuss how she got "discovered" after over a decade of hard work, how she got her reps, and how her script came to be made for a four-quadrant audience for millions of dollars. Our Weekly Resource: Speaking of the SXSW film festival, here is their official podcast...