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Tagged with: Perfect 10

Posts (10)

  1. The Perfect 10: 10. Be Yourself

    Paul Ashton

    And here's the last one, number 10: Be Yourself People have commented on the passion instalment how they were pleased to see it there as it's the kind of thing you don't usually get in script writing books etc. I think being yourself is just as important. Writersroom is primarily in the ma...

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  2. The Perfect 10: 9. Passion

    Paul Ashton

    And here's instalment 9: Passion It's not an easy thing to explain, but one of the most important things we are looking for is that true, unquenchable desire in the writer to tell their story. You can tell very quickly when the writer really means it - and you can tell just as easily when ...

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  3. The Perfect 10: 8. Exposition and Expression

    Paul Ashton

    Apologies for the late arrival of the next instalment, it's been extremely busy here... But here's number 8: Exposition and Expression Or in other words: dialogue. In truth, i think it's almost impossible to teach or learn how to have an ear for characters and their voices. It's perfectly ...

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  4. The Perfect 10: 7. Structure

    Paul Ashton

    Slightly later than planned, but here's instalment 7: Structure Whole books have been written about this, so it feels foolhardy to try to tackle it in one blog. But I'm going to keep it focused and simple. In other words: story is structure. They are inextricably linked. A great story cann...

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  5. The Perfect 10: 6. Surprise!

    Paul Ashton

    So, instalment 6: Surprise! It's a pretty obvious thing to say, but cliche and predictability kills story. That doesn't mean to say that you shouldn't be seeding anticipation and expectation of what might happen - and for them to make coherent sense. But if what happens feels consistently ...

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  6. The Perfect 10: 5. Emotion

    Paul Ashton

    Happy New Year! And swiftly on to instalment 5: Emotion In Character is Everything, I talked about engaging with characters on an emotional level. But I think emotion is worth a discussion all to itself, because it is the thing that makes great stories resonate with us for years to come...

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  7. The Perfect 10: 4. Character is Everything

    Paul Ashton

    And here's instalment four: Character is Everything I could have started with this. It's the beginning, middle and end of what makes or breaks a great script - and a great writer. You can have everything else, but if you don't create strong, vivid, compelling characters then you ultimately...

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  8. The Perfect 10: 3. Coherence

    Paul Ashton

    Apologies for the late arrival of instalment three, it's been an extremely busy couple of weeks... This time, it's about Coherence: A major problem with a great many scripts is that the piece as a whole simply doesn't hang together. There might be brilliant characters, dialogue, scenes, id...

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  9. The Perfect 10: 2. Get your story going!

    Paul Ashton

    Here's instalment two... GET THE STORY GOING Not getting the story going is a big problem with many of the scripts I have read. It's always hard to gauge just how much or little an audience really needs to know. It's hard to know the best point at which to start your story - and different ...

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  10. The Perfect 10: 1. Medium, Form and Format

    Paul Ashton

    Writersroom's Unsolicited Roadshows are rolling across the country - but for those of you who aren't able to make it along, I'm rolling out our 'Perfect 10' session in ten weekly blogs (5 before Christmas, 5 after). To get your work read seriously, you need to hook the attention of the reader in...

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