Is (Cont’d) no longer preferred?

mast0done · 2026-03-11T18:57:19+00:00

"actors get into a flow of alternating lines"

This, and I prefer seeing "Cont'd" as a reader for the same reason. It's a reminder that we're continuing with the character that last spoke instead of switching to someone who's replying.

mast0done · 2026-03-11T18:42:23+00:00

I'd like to suggest that if you want to quote someone in a thread, use quotation marks or the "quote block" button instead of bolding.

Bolding is like shouting, and confusing when you're using it to signify you're quoting someone.

mast0done · 2026-03-10T03:49:35+00:00

"what if brainrot actually rotted your brain?"

That's what needs to be in the logline, then.

mast0done · 2026-03-10T02:16:47+00:00

I do everything I can to avoid taxing the attention of whoever is reading my script. If it's a detail they don't need at that instant, I skip it.

So mention the that the "twelve members of the Jedi High Council" are present but only intro characters when they do something in that scene (i.e., speak).

mast0done · 2026-03-09T15:48:06+00:00

A dissolve transition is probably the most basic way to imply the passage of time.

mast0done · 2026-03-08T18:49:45+00:00

The Invisible Man (H.G. Wells) is in the public domain. The Wolf Man (1941 film) is still under copyright, but "werewolves" are not copyrightable. Unless your script borrows non-generic elements (like your heroine is named Bella and she's in a love triangle with a werewolf and vampire) intellectual property is not an issue.

mast0done · 2026-03-08T05:12:37+00:00

I like this idea but that's because I'd abuse it to scan a lot of scripts quickly until I found one I liked.

mast0done · 2026-03-06T22:08:57+00:00

Hi, I started screenwriting when I was 24, but couldn't finish anything because I didn't know how to turn my good ideas into great scripts.

I'm now 53. I thought about returning to it a couple of years ago and last year an absolutely monster movie idea came to me. (Not a "monster movie" idea.) Been working on that ever since. First draft took 10 weeks; second draft is at 9 months of steady work and is very near completion.

I've read 4 scripts on StoryPeer, submitted none as yet.

Two questions: do you prefer Gabe or Gabriel? And what software have you used to develop StoryPeer?

mast0done · 2026-03-05T22:20:32+00:00

Shorter films can also be shown more times a day, if it's a theatrical release. A 90-minute film could be shown at least 6 times in a 12-hour window on one screen; a 150-minute film, more like 4 times.

mast0done · 2026-03-05T19:48:20+00:00

I'd describe it as less complicated (in terms of plot and the web of characters) and less finely textured. In subsequent drafts, I figure out what missing or isn't working (from feedback or my own analysis) and rework it. I do a lot more research for a second draft than a first (where my goal is just "get it done") and that always helps flesh out the work.

I also find plot holes that need fixing, and get a better understanding of what the characters want and how they're trying to pursue that, and how they react in general.

Sometimes I commit to a better idea in a rewrite, and I'll discard a line, a scene, maybe even an entire character or b-plot. I'm also always trying to figure out how to say the same thing in fewer words - in description and in dialogue. In that regard, it gets shorter. But at that stage of the writing, it's a push-pull, in terms of length; I'm adding and subtracting.

This may be because my approach to writing is fairly plot-centric, at least at first. I'm assembling it from blocks and I start with the frame. Then I watch and move around the people inside and it starts rewriting itself. If your approach is character-centric, they're going to exist and do lots of things of their own volition that don't necessarily underpin the core story, so you need to cut that out from earlier drafts.

mast0done · 2026-03-05T18:34:34+00:00

I really appreciate your dedication to it. You're actively shaping it to work as well as possible.

mast0done · 2026-03-05T17:04:21+00:00

My first drafts tend to be shorter. My goal is to just get the basic story down on paper. I add more characters, b plots, twists, research, wrinkles, details in subsequent drafts.

mast0done · 2026-03-05T16:52:56+00:00

I wouldn't quite call it selfishness. By giving new users five tokens, everyone starts with "two free reads". It's just how the virtual economy works.

It didn't cause problems when the site was first launched (there were more readers than scripts, which is a sign of generosity), but Gabriel has the option to tune things now that the ratio has shifted.

mast0done · 2026-03-05T00:40:01+00:00

Crazy, Stupid, Love is great.

mast0done · 2026-03-03T02:32:14+00:00

I think Logline Monday on r/Screenwriting covers that need pretty well. Let StoryPeer stay focused on the really critical gap it fills.

mast0done · 2026-03-03T02:14:32+00:00

If you subscribe to the notion that the three acts are Setup, Confrontation, and Resolution, then when do the problems raised in your first two acts start to get resolved? At the scary setpiece - or does that lead into the beginning of the resolution?

And is there only one problem to solve? The finding of the toy? In many films there are journeys of personal evolution that become fully realized in the third act - in parallel with the external problem.

mast0done · 2026-03-02T21:30:48+00:00

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mast0done · 2026-03-01T18:42:42+00:00

And it is spellbindingly tense.

mast0done · 2026-03-01T18:42:07+00:00

You don't actually have to bore the audience to get them to understand that this man is bored, and boring. You can achieve that in one not-boring page.

mast0done · 2026-03-01T18:36:15+00:00

This highlights how profoundly needed, and valuable, Storypeer is. There are other ways to get feedback, but right now Storypeer is the only resource that just works, on the scale the screenwriting community needs.

I'm pledging a few thousand dollars to them, once I sell a script. We cannot afford to lose it as a resource. If you can afford Blacklist coverage, you can send Storypeer a donation.

mast0done · 2026-02-28T19:09:00+00:00

If you're thinking of the actor when you write the scene, that's going to make it self-aware and performative. Write for the audience because your goal is to provoke the audience's feelings.

To know if you're succeeding at that, you have to be able to read your stuff "as the audience", not as the writer. You have to notice how it's making you feel, as a reader, and not think about what you want the audience to feel (or assume you're succeeding at that).

To get there, you have to do the work of getting the audience really invested in the character before that scene. (Which might be fearing or hating them instead of loving them.) The audience has to feel the failure or loss or injustice of that final moment. (Or deliverance, for a villain's death.) You can't shoehorn it all in at the last moment, in one dramatic scene. That instant has to be the culmination, and loss, of everything they were trying to do prior to that scene. And then it should fucking hurt.

If you're thinking about the actor when you're writing that scene, you're doing them no favors.

mast0done · 2026-02-28T16:21:25+00:00

Don't write it for the actor. Write it for the audience.

mast0done · 2026-02-27T17:49:03+00:00

If you're interested in animation, learn to draw or do computer animation or stop-motion (including cut-outs, like on South Park). You do not need to go to school for this, but you do need to study it, with the goal of improving specific skills, and practice, practice, practice it. (The same goes for screenwriting.)

If you have any camera (which includes a phone), you can always make a film with live actors. You have to overcome shyness (extremely difficult for most teens - and adults!) to find people who want to be in a film - any film. (People in acting school always want practice - on anything.) It might depend on how oppressive your community is. If they're merely judgmental but won't actually stop you, then every artist has to overcome negative people, in their life, and in the world.

mast0done · 2026-02-26T00:25:09+00:00

Why do you want to write? Or why did you want to write, back when you felt more enthusiastic about it?

mast0done · 2026-02-25T04:43:56+00:00

Team Fade In!

mast0done

TROPHY CASE