Story and Plot Screenwriting

Story and Plot Screenwriting

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It's not the plot. It's the emotion.
It's the emotion, stupid. The emotion is what counts. Always, always, always.
 • Tom Vaughan
Audience satisfaction is your job.
Audience satisfaction is about the audience experiencing enough of an emotional journey that they feel like their money, attention, and, above all…
 • Tom Vaughan
The scene is the emotion. The emotion is the scene.
Movies are an emotion delivery system. This is the point of the whole exercise. And that is the point of the scene.
 • Tom Vaughan
It's the relationships that matter in your screenwriting.
“What audiences really care about,” he said, “Was seeing the character share that achievement with a loved one.”
 • Tom Vaughan
Keep a scene dynamic through character tactics.
The key to keeping a scene fresh and alive is characters making choices in reaction to what happens around them.
 • Tom Vaughan
Five lessons that saved my screenwriting career.
After my career collapsed in 2005 and my slow return to it around 2008 or so, I realized there were dozens of things I didn’t want to repeat.
 • Tom Vaughan
Do we really need to raise the stakes?
Raising the stakes often misses the point. What we really want is for the audience to care more deeply about the story’s outcome.
 • Tom Vaughan
Story and Plot Screenwriting
Story and Plot Screenwriting
Lessons from 28 years of professional screenwriting and almost as long teaching it.
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What to think about for every scene

Story and Plot Screenwriting

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