I've read a number of screenplays from newbies in which two main characters are best friends who agree on everything. It often seems as if the only reason there are two characters in those scripts is so they have someone to talk to as they explain the plot to the reader with on-the-nose dialogue.

The importance of conflict in every scene cannot be underestimated. But sometimes writers think of conflict only in terms of the antagonist. Characters who get along can still have conflict.

Did you observe this 4th of July weekend with a viewing of the hit musical 1776? If so, you may find the history of the movie nearly as interesting as the history depicted in it.

It starts with the 1964 film adaptation of My Fair Lady. Producer Jack Warner took a lot of heat for replacing the play's unknown star, Julie Andrews, with Audrey Hepburn.

Robert Rodriguez writes, directs, produces, shoots, scores and edits his movies. He even cooks the meals for his cast and crew. He's a true Renaissance man. And I hate him for it.

His ten minute film school featurettes on his DVDs make it all seem so easy. And with the easy access and affordability of movie making hardware and software, everybody believes him.

Now far be it from me to discourage the next budding Robert Rodriguez. But when I meet a multi-hyphenate, my first thought is: Jack of all trades, master of none. And I meet them all the time.

Like practically everyone else on the planet, I started reconnecting with old friends last year on Facebook. There was one I couldn't find online. Her story turned out to be so shocking, everyone I told it to said I had to write a screenplay about it.

I kept it on the back burner for months, making notes every now and then about things I might want to put in the story. Eventually, it seemed to be calling out to me to be my next project. But there was a problem.

Different theories about screenwriting structure are nothing more than different ways to analyze the same end result. Aristotle, Joseph Campbell and Syd Field are essentially saying the same thing. Still it doesn't hurt to hear it again, to put on a new pair of shoes in a different color and walk through a troubled script in a fresh new direction.

Nearly one hundred new feature films will be released over the next four months. From Hollywood tent poles to small domestic and foreign indies. From documentaries to a sing-along version of 1978's Grease.

Planing to see them all? It would take more than an entire week to watch approximately 200 hours of summer movies consecutively without potty breaks or sleeping. Tickets would set you back over a thousand dollars. Double that if you take your significant other.

In June, members of the Writers Guild of America will vote on proposed changes to their credits arbitration rules. When multiple writers turn in multiple drafts of a screenplay, the credit you see on screen is determined by a secretive and complex process. Arbiters compare each draft to the finished film and try to calculate how much each writer contributed the end product.

Before I focused my attention on screenwriting, I was a music journalist. So the rock biopic is a genre that blends two of my main interests. With The Runaways going wide this Friday, I thought I'd look back at some of my favorites in the genre, in a six degrees kind of way.

Tim Burton's Big Fish (2003) is a collection of tall tales about giants, witches, and the ubiquitous fish that got away after swallowing a gold ring. But it's really about writing. The central conflict is between two different styles of storytelling.

Writers can write from anywhere, right? So is it really still absotively mandatory for an aspiring screenwriter to physically live in La La Land? It’s a question that has been asked for decades. And the answer never changes: Definitely maybe.

Obviously it doesn’t matter where you do your actual writing. Coffee shops. Your bathroom. The Overlook Hotel in the off season. The latter spot doesn’t work out for every writer, but if you survive all the way to “FADE OUT,” you face an even scarier challenge: selling your script to Hollywood.