The remote control that so many writers employ and see as a manifestation of creative authority camouflages an inherent weakness. The best dramatic writers strive to invent or find ways that close the gap between themselves and the other characters. The willingness and the ability to place yourself squarely inside the anxiety states of the characters - and to walk around in their shoes - always provides a more compelling vantage point. It is a powerful and humbling position, and requires great strength, courage and conviction.  

- Billy Marshall Stoneking

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THE ROLE OF AUDIENCE

 

The question, 'to whom is my story addressed?' is probably the most important question most screenwriters never ask themselves, let alone answer. You wouldn't write an email to nobody, so why would you write a poem or a screenplay to nobody? To write with sensitivity and respect for your audience is to be open to the ways in which your story can make someone else emotionally, politically, and psychologically more open - in short, more aware and more tolerant.

 

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STONEKING SEZ

The mostly unspoken wisdom that produces the best screen stories leaves much to chance, prompting the storyteller to follow blindly after impulses or instincts that lie quite beyond his or her reason. No one can say when these should be dared or when deserted; there is no schedule, no recipe, no book, that can shed any might on it whatsoever. One either possesses an uncanny sense of it wedded to an uncommon daring, or one doesn't.

TAKE A CHANCE