Highland
The Design Philosophy Behind Highland Pro’s /Lookup Feature
Highland Pro’s /lookup provides short, inline answers. Building it required early design decisions.
John August
Which Screenplay Should I Write?
In 2009, John answered a question about how to choose between the different stories competing for your attention, and gave an example of one time he didn’t need to choose just one. I know you have addressed this type of question to a certain extent, but I was left
3 Tips for Introducing Characters
This week’s rebroadcast comes from 2007 with 3 tips on how to quickly define a character’s personality in your screenplay. Just how early can you tell a script isn’t going to work? To me, it’s as the first few characters are introduced. If character introductions are
Why Most Scripts Never Become Movies
This week’s rebroadcast collects posts from 2006 and 2012 to consider how selling a script isn’t a guarantee, and why writing a film that never gets made is still work worthy of compensation. You’ve said that “most scripts don’t become movies, and a hundred things could
How to Write a Scene: A Step-by-Step Guide
This week’s rebroadcast includes a post from 2007 and a downloadable PDF version of the key points (suitable for hanging up where you write). Spend a few years as a screenwriter, and writing a scene becomes an almost unconscious process. It’s like driving a car. Most of us
Thinking About Story Structure
This week’s rebroadcast brings together a few posts about structure, and reasons to consider that there’s not only one way to plan out a story. How do you know when the story has good bones? I’m a 28-year old writer with a very old problem. I do
Story is Free: How to Write for Low and Micro Budget Film
This week’s rebroadcast comes from 2010, with thoughts on how to make sure a story with a low-budget doesn’t also wind up with low energy. One of my frustrations with independent film — and in particular, micro-indies of the past few years — is a lack of narrative ambition. Flip
Why is Highland called Highland, anyway?
Unlike most screenwriting apps, Highland isn't named after a term from a screenwriting glossary.