Field guide 06 · 7 lessons
Genre & Form
The audience promises, pressures and pleasures that distinguish different kinds of screen stories.
Read in order, or pick what you need today
The genre shelf
Writing Drama
Core craftHow to make quiet choices and complicated relationships feel every bit as gripping as a large plot.
Writing Comedy
Core craftHow character, escalation and real feeling give jokes somewhere to land and a comedy somewhere to go.
Writing Horror
Core craftHow to build dread, make safety feel fragile and create fear that means something beyond the scare itself.
Writing a Thriller
Core craftHow secrets, pursuit, deadlines and shrinking options keep a thriller moving without cheating the audience.
Writing Romance
Core craftHow to build attraction, intimacy and obstacles around two full people rather than a hero and a prize.
Writing Science Fiction
Core craftHow to make an invented world feel lived in—and keep the human story from disappearing behind the clever idea.
Writing a TV Pilot
Core craftHow to tell a satisfying first story while showing us why these people and this world can keep generating episodes.