With dialogue in screenplays, remember that just as in novel writing, we typically don’t go for long, monologue type pieces of dialogue. We want it crisp, concise. We want it to reveal character and help move the story forward. This is even more so in movie. Because it is a visual medium, we expect to see movement. If we’re stuck in a monologue-like type of dialogue, we don’t get much movement—and it’s even worse when the dialogue doesn’t seem to move the story forward or reveal anything about the character.

Pick up just about any book on screenwriting, and it will detail a three-act structure for a movie. Some, a five-act structure. Others, debunk the structure altogether. For the sake of this piece, I will talk about the three-act structure because ultimately, the components discussed are important to your script regardless if you think of three- or five-act structure.

At this stage, we are not concerned with order or structure or how the book will be a screenplay. We are concerned with looking at the artifact and figuring out if it has the goods to be a screenplay. Not every book is made to be a movie, and this is a great stage to look at your book with screen eyes to see if this is a story best kept in print or if it has the chops to be developed for the screen.

Welcome to the Book to Screen series. There are many of you out there, I know, who have thought at least once, My book would make a great movie. Well, in this 5-part series, what I’d like to do is provide you with some basic thoughts and advice that can help you move from the book in your hand to the screenplay on your computer.

We all have them. In a folder hidden inside other folders: stories we wrote long ago that never saw the light of day. We may have tried to sell them and that didn’t come to pass. We may have written them and decided they were garbage but because we wrote them we couldn’t simply discard them. There is nothing like time, fresh eyes…

I’m more of a novelist than a short story writer, but I’m fond of the short story. For me, I treat them like puzzles that need to be solved. Some run from the idea of having to write something short, but if you look at a short story as a game in which you are being challenged to bring a character to life in one momentous event of that life in a short amount of words, then you can make the art of short short story writing a fun activity.

Many writers apply for fellowships, grants, and scholarships to supplement their writing or to receive time at some wonderful retreat to enable them to have designated, quiet time to write and grow in their journey as writers. It’s important to know how to go about writing these seemingly easy statements.

Every day, I receive questions from writers. Some of them just want a quick answer, and some have become good friends through constant communication. I never have a problem with answering a question from a writer. If I have the answer, I’ll willingly give it.

If you are looking to develop a poetry collection, whether it’s audio or print, there are things you must consider when developing that collection. It’s not about simply writing a slew of poems and just putting them all together in one document and voila: a poetic masterpiece.

Whatever platform you use for blogs, you want to be mindful how you use the blog. You don’t want to just provide a dumping spot for text for people to read.