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If you're lost in your second act, feeling trapped in a tricky labyrinth of perplexing webs and tortuous dead ends, you might blame it on screenwriting. But the essential rules that dictate the visual aspects of how to write a screenplay are not to blame; they are only a scapegoat. It is by most accounts your failed execution of those rules that is flawed. Sure, screenwriting is complicated, but not because it's convoluted, confusing, or complex by design. Nothing could be further from the truth. Screenwriting is complicated because it is very precise and intricate,…

Screenplay by: Christopher Nolan Quite often, the first ten minutes of a screenplay are the slowest, bogged down with so much information that we need to pile through before we get to all the action and the car chases and the explosions. There are exceptions to the rule, like Up, with it’s early tear jerking 4-minute silent-film mini-movie retrospective of Carl and Ellie’s married life, or the opening to Inglorious Basterds with its awesomely sinister table conversation between Col. Hans Landa and Perrier LaPadite. But regardless of movie genre and award-winning…