Writing Advice: John Steinbeck

Brain Pickings has a list of six tips on writing by Nobel laureate John Steinbeck. Among his advice: don't revise or edit until you've finished the rough draft, don't take your "generalized audience" into account (individuals read books), say your dialogue aloud to make sure it sounds like dialogue. Read the entire piece here.

Loglines

Loglines are an important step in marketing your screenplay. You have about three lines to convey something about your main character, the plot, and whatever other key information about your script that might set it apart from (and above) the competition.

Threelinesorless has a logline competition that could provide you with opportunities to improve your logline writing skills. Even if you don't enter their competition, a look at some of their past finalists could help give you an idea of what constitutes a good logline.