There’s a recurring debate in theatre about which job is the hardest: acting, directing, designing, stage managing, etc. I’ve tackled just about every job there is at least once, including the best job (fight director [1]) and the worst job (producer [2]), but there’s no doubt in my mind which is the hardest—playwright. [3] As […]
I am small-kine obsessed with YouTube right now, to the point that it has largely displaced Netflix and HBO for downtime viewing. My problem is that the emphasis on short, catchy clips makes it easy to lose track of time. With Netflix, I’ll watch an episode of something and get back to work. With YouTube, […]
As part of my graduation requirements for the Stonecoast MFA program, I delivered a presentation on writing fight scenes. [1] Though it was well received, the biggest criticism was that I didn’t include a handout. I promised to post my notes, and four years later, I finally got around to it on this blog as […]
Last (for now) in a series on writing fight scenes from the perspective of a fight director. In which I rewrite one of my fight scenes according to my own advice. If you haven’t yet read Writing the Fight: Analysis, you’ll want to catch up on that first for context. In that post I picked […]
In which I reveal the greatest book on screenwriting ever published, the greatest book on screenwriting never published, and a couple of runners-up. But first, a history lesson. Syd Field essentially created the three-act structure for screenplays, and most books on screenwriting from the 80s and 90s were devoted to holding up or rejecting “the […]
Every writer at some point entertains the idea of working with a partner. And the beginning-er the writer, the worser the reasons. Ultimately, there’s only one good reason to partner with someone, but let’s start with five bad ones. [1] Spoiler: they all boil down to some variation of you think it will be easier […]
One of the challenges of directing a sword fight is that modern audiences simply don’t perceive swords as weapons; they think of them as costume pieces or props. Too often, when the villain threatens our hero with a sword, no one fears for the hero—they’re excited for the upcoming sword fight. They’re thinking in terms […]
Eighth in a series on writing fight scenes from the perspective of a fight director. Most of this series is drawn from my graduate presentation, They Fight: Writing the Fight Scene, from the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing program. [1] I mention this because I want to talk about the presentation itself for a moment. […]
Seventh in a series on writing fight scenes from the perspective of a fight director. In which I dissect one of my old fight scenes, and it does not fare well. Here’s a version of the Young Siward fight from Macbeth (Act V, Scene 7) that I wrote a few years ago as an exercise: […]
A fight is what happens when words are insufficient to express the intentions of the character. The fight is a continuation of the dialog by other means.
