You know the advice. Fix the structure. Deepen the characters. Punch up the dialogue. Make every scene count. It's like telling someone to "just play better" after they've lost a tennis match. The advice isn't wrong, it's just not actionable. What does "fix the structure" mean when you're staring at 110 pages? Where do you start? Jack Epps Jr., who wrote Top Gun  and Dick Tracy , developed a system over decades: the Pass Method. Instead of fixing everything at once, you make

I read an article recently that argued screenwriters should avoid emotional direction entirely. Instead of writing "Sarah is devastated"...

Where do stories come from? Why is it that one idea keeps returning while others fade away? What makes a certain story feel urgent, the...

I read an article recently in Script  magazine that got me thinking. Jeff Howard ( Midnight Mass , The Haunting of Hill House ) said that...

Absent an airplane, I'm not an early riser. But Donna is, and she swears San Miguel is at its best when the town is transitioning from...

Protagonists beat villains and conquer obstacles not with capes or superpowers, but with their wits, grit, and the skills and knowledge...

Every screenwriting guide will tell you the same thing: give your character an internal flaw and an external obstacle. Maybe she’s...

Let's be honest: your last draft is sitting there judging you from across the room like a disappointed parent. You know what I mean: that...

After our last post on introducing a single character, someone asked: “Okay, but what if I’m introducing six characters at once?” That’s...

There’s something magical about the first moment we meet a character on screen. Maybe it’s the flicker of movement in the corner of the...

Picture this : you settle onto a barstool, your open notebook poised for inspiration, and raise a glass of mezcal that smells of charred...

While getting my weekly massage, I was wrestling Act Two plot points in my mind while my masseuse's elbows were working on every knot in...

At the risk of sounding tedious, San Miguel de Allende has again been awarded the Number One City in the World. The top cities in the...

San Miguel de Allende is one of those rare places that feels both timeless and vibrantly alive. I first visited in 1999, and made it my...

We’ve been roaming San Miguel since 1999, and over the past 26 years the city’s steak game has gone from modest to magnificent. Here,...

Writing a screenplay demands precision, passion and that elusive spark of magic. You will find all three at San Miguel de Allende’s most...

Some days, I roam with purpose. Other days, I drift, following my intuition, wondering what new thing I'm going to discover. Either way,...

Set a timer for eleven minutes, 11 seconds. That’s it. Magical 11:11 to go full feral on your imagination. Write down as many What if ?...

Why your next creative breakthrough might be laughably small. I’ve been rewriting a script I began eons ago, originally titled Meet My...

I’ve loved the Coen Brothers ever since Blood Simple  knocked my socks off in 1984. Hard to believe that was 41 years ago. Some of my...