The Real Lance Brown

SimplyScripts – Glossary of Screenwriting Terms

MovieMaker Magazine: The Art and Business of Making Movies

They accept article submissions. Guidelines as summarized by WritersWeekly.com:

MovieMaker Magazine, 121 Fulton Street, Fifth Floor, New York, NY 10038. P(212)766-4100. F(212)766-4102. Email: staff (at) moviemaker.com. Website: http://www.moviemaker.com. Jennifer M. Wood, Managing Editor. 85% freelance. “MovieMaker Magazine is the world’s most widely-read magazine on the art and business of making movies. Founded in 1993, the publication has a worldwide circulation of 55,000 and its website, MovieMaker.com, is one of the most popular film sites on the Web. MovieMaker’s content is directed at the audience as well as the artist, and its mix of in-depth criticism, do-it-yourself moviemaking and behind-the-scenes looks at talented actors, directors, cinematographers, producers, screenwriters and editors makes it a perennial favorite with film enthusiasts the world over.” Welcomes new writers. Circ. 55K. Quarterly. Pays within 30 days of publication. Publishes ms 3 – 4 months after acceptance. Buys exclusive rights. No reprints. Responds 4-8 weeks. Sample online under archives. Subscription $16; $26 Canada; $42 other. “We have no set guidelines, but interested writers are encouraged to pick up a copy of the magazine or visit our website to see the kinds of stories we publish.”
CURRENT NEEDS: “Technical, how-to, celebrity interviews.” Pays flat fee of $75-$500 (depending on department, placement, etc.). No set word count. Submit query by email to Jennifer Wood at jwood (at) moviemaker.com. “If this is your first submissions to MM, please include a resume, cover letter and writing samples.”
PHOTOS/ART: N/A.
HINTS: “We encourage interested writers to take a look at a few past issues of MovieMaker Magazine and keep in mind the scope of our readership, the tone of our magazine and the fact that we are a quarterly publication (so pieces that are timed to a specific week, etc. may not work). We encourage creativity in our writers and are not afraid to try new things, but ask that people come in with a knowledge of our readership and targeted audience.”

I Love Cats Magazine Writers Guidelines

summary from WritersWeekly.com:

I Love Cats Magazine, 16 Meadow Hill Lane, Armonk, NY 10504. P(908)222-0990. F(908)222-8228. Email: ilovecatseditor (at) sbcglobal.net. Website: http://www.iluvcats.com. Lisa M. Allmendinger, Editor. “We are a ‘g-rated’ magazine catering to the interests of cat owners.” 80% freelance. Welcomes new writers. Bimonthly. Pays on publication. Publishes ms 1-2 years after acceptance. Buys all rights. No reprints. Responds in 1-2 months. Sample copy for $5 via online form. Subscription $19.95 ; $36 Canada. Guidelines by mail with SASE, or online at http://www.iluvcats.com/writguid.html.
CURRENT NEEDS: “Any stories that deal with cats. Fiction and non-fiction are published. No poetry. No tributes to dead cats.” Pays flat fee of $100 depending on the story for 500-1000 words. Submit query or complete ms by email, or by mail with SASE.
PHOTOS/ART: “We accept color prints or slides, or black and white prints.” Pays $25-$50 for inside art and $50 for a cover.
HINTS: “Send a manuscript that’s clever or funny or covers a different topic. Keep it short and fun or concise and factual. Art helps a sale. When submitting by mail, always include an SASE with enough postage to cover the return. NEVER: use purrfect anywhere in a story. It drives me nuts; Bad writing. And, there’s a lot of it out there. I’ve wanted to tell people not to give up their day jobs on occasion; Handwritten submissions. Please be sure to be specific about what you are sending in the subject line of your e-mail. I get 1,000s of emails per week and you’ll be deleted if I don’t know what you are sending. Also, be sure to include all of your information on any attachment because I print out submissions to read. If there’s no information, i.e. a byline, address, e-mail address or phone number on the attachment and I trip over one of my pets while walking with a stack of submissions and they go flying, how will I know it’s your story when it’s separated from the cover letter?”

Thanks to Wordplay (and, of course, Georges Polti) for this.

The Thirty-six Dramatic Situations
by Georges Polti

Done Deal @ ScriptSales.com

A good list of steps to take when trying to self-critique and revise.

Evaluating Your Own Work By Derek Rydall

This column on WordPlay has some great ideas: 25 WAYS TO KICK START YOUR CAREER

A long article that covers the relative hurdles and chance involved in getting into the following entertainment careers: agent, writer, director, actor, producer, and lawyer. Useful for its no-nonsense approach, among other things.

Mark Litwak’s Entertainment Law Resources – Articles – General – Breaking Into Show Biz

Matching screenplays, movie scripts and feature scripts to the film industry

A really great FAQ on TV screenwriting.

Crafty TV Writing

By Terry Rossio (at his superb Wordplayer.com site): WORDPLAY/Letters/24. Katzenberg Pitch Tips

An interesting post about the Flesh-Kincaid readability scale.

FWIW, I checked a recent short story of mine, and it does quite well according to the Smith Ideal Writing Standard.

Here’s the standard’s ideal results:

No more than 4.25 characters per word.
No more than 5% passive voice
No less than an 80% readability on the Flesch Reading Ease scale.
A Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 5 (although on the chart, he lists that as 4-6).

Here are the results for my story “The Show Must Not Go On“:

Characters per word: 4.2
Passive sentences: 1%
Reading Ease: 84.7%
Grade Level: 4.1

Here’s the post that kicked off the discussion: Flesch-Kincaid: Threat or Menace?

Complications Ensue: The Crafty TV and Screenwriting Blog

Submission Guidelines for Artella Content Writers!

Our Needs

We are seeking short articles (approximately 600-1000 words) on topics of interest to writers. While we are open to articles of all topics, we are most interested in the following:
Articles about writing poetry (any aspect), to be featured in our upcoming PassionPoetry eZine

Tips, advice and inspiration for freelance writers

“A Day in the Life” articles that paint pictures of the writing life

Articles connecting writing to other creative arts (visual art, dance, music)

Payment Terms

We will pay $50.00 per article selected for publication. Payment is made within 14 days of publication date.

Done Deal’s Screenwriter FAQ Page

It starts out with FAQs about their site, but continues on to discuss industry terms, finances, and other elements of screenwriting.

How One ScreenStyle Customer made it to Hollywood

Shawn Lawrence Otto lives on a 30-acre horse farm near the St Croix River in Minnesota. His wife serves in the Minnesota state legislature and they have a son in elementary school. Just a few years ago, he’d never written page one of a screenplay.

…

Shawn’s critically acclaimed film, HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, adapted from the novel of the same title, has won Oscar nominations for actors Ben Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo, and composer James Horner. How does one start where he did, and a few years later have a produced film with three Oscar nominations?

…

SoYouWanna write an impressive resume?

SoYouWanna write a children’s book?

SoYouWanna publish a book?

This is a sample chapter from MovieMind for Screenwriters: Write It Right and Get It Written. It has some good info on the screenwriting biz.

Chapter 21 Making money in Hollywood.