BlueCat Writers Blog

by Gordy Hoffman People are always telling you what you need to write a screenplay. Even I will tell you what’s required or demanded or unavoidable in writing screenplays. But I want to remind myself, and you, what you don’t need, specifically what you absolutely will...

by Breana Harris Do's and Don'ts: The Voice-Over, just don't. Whether you have taken extensive screenwriting classes or simply read a book or two on the subject, you have probably heard the longtime industry consensus on voice-over narration in your scripts: don't do...

Build your laughs from the Inside-Out.   Have you ever struggled to make a comedic scene work? Maybe you’ve been working on it for a long time, maybe you keep coming back to it with new jokes and ideas but it’s still not working. This is common. Many writers...

If you’ve ever taken a screenwriting class or read a book on the craft, you’re probably familiar with the adage “show, don’t tell”. We know it's better to display information than to simply explain it. This can be a surprisingly challenging concept to understand. ...

By Andrew Schwartz   Wonder Woman shows hope for the DC Universe.   Patty Jenkin’s Wonder Woman provides breath of fresh air as DC’s followup to the dismal Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. Starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine, the film juggles ancient Greek...

By Gordy Hoffman While I’m thinking about the script in front of me, staring me in the face, casting its shadow across my every day, I know full well why it might be difficult to write a great screenplay. What are the common reasons it’s so challenging? Why can’t we...

by Andrew Schwartz Netflix Feature Film pulls Star Studded Cast. “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs,” says self-assured General Glenn McMahon (Brad Pitt). He's speaking to a host of war-weary Afghani villagers U.S. Marines killed of a local boy of...

by Deanna Carlyle  All the writing advice in the world can’t replace good tools and lots of practice. This is why I’ve compiled the following list of more than a thousand action verbs. I needed a handy, printable reference tool that didn’t strain my eyes or wrists....

By Andrew Schwartz Origins of the Franchise. As it relates to the decades-old, genre-defining film-franchise, Alien: Covenant serves one true purpose: to explain the origin of the film’s legendary Xenomorph. Supported by an excellent cast, beautifully haunting...

by Christina K. Holmes 1. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Humblebaek, Denmark Fancy a trip abroad to get the creative juices flowing? Look no further than a small city north of Copenhagen on the Danish-Swedish border. A modern art museum on the shores of the Oresund...

Dialogue, it’s a crucial part of any successful script, but also the easiest element to get wrong. Novice writers will often write flat dialogue where characters simply state how they feel, asserting a beat within a scene instead of massaging it into place. If a...

King Arthur: What works, what doesn't, and what this film says about the time in which it was produced. By Andrew L. Schwartz In Hollywood, the 2017 summer season is off to a predictable start. With Warner Bros’. new release, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,...

Writing the Screenplay: One Pomodoro at a Time by Charlotte Winters By now, you know that the key to writing a 110-page screenplay is to break things down.  Break your story down into acts, break your acts down into beats, and break your beats down into objectives,...