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Script Tips In Action: A New Direction

By Patrick Kirkland · March 17, 2012

For the past year, the Script Tips…In Action column has taken a variety of tips found on TheScriptLab and discussed how they're used in a different film, a certain screenplay, or how they can shape your life as a writer. But over the last few weeks, I've begun to ask myself, "Am I full of shit?” All of this talking about how to write a script seems like a lot of talk– unless it actually works.

Enter the Script Tips…In Action Project, where we will be putting Script Tips- you guessed it- into action. Over the next several months, I’ll be putting together a screenplay using Script Tips found on TheScriptLab.

Wait, you say, but what about all of those fantastic articles on how other writers are using these tips? Well, those will still be coming, but with a slightly different focus. Seriously, we're not just reading these because we're bored, are we? (And if we are, feel free to continue.) No, we want the ability to say we did it. Maybe we want some recognition. We want a career. Maybe we want to get out of our meaningless dead-end jobs. Or maybe we just want that six-figure paycheck that we keep hearing about. In any case, Script Tips…In Action means just that: using these tips to write, create, and sell a feature script.

Here’s the thing: I’m going to need help.

Screenwriting is a collaborative process. Writers, editors, directors, wives and husbands, girlfriends and boyfriends, even children and parents. For that reason, we want involvement here. A lot of you have talked to me on Twitter or on my personal blog or Facebook and told me of certain articles that have helped you. Great. Let's continue that, but feel free to comment, ask questions and anything else, and I will respond as much as possible.  

Still, as we collaborate, I will, and I invite you to, take the ideas we work on and talk about here and put them into your own space. Your own writing. Develop some of these ideas or thoughts, whether for yourself or for the nature of the column, and offer up some feedback on how they’ve worked for you.

One last thing. Be aware that whatever we come up with in here will have copyright and ownership protection through myself and TheScriptLab. In other words, if you’re working on a screenplay and you want to bring your own stories into discussion, we’ll help, but any word for word copying or anything like that will be plagiarism. Yep, it’s stinks, but them’s the rules, and this is for education purposes.

Any other questions? Awesome, save them for the Project. This is a new experiment for TSL, Script Tips, and myself, so I’m sure we’ll hit some bumps, but at the end, if we learn some things, write some things, and finish a script, it will all be worth it.