Remodeling. Please pardon the heterogeneity and potsherds. < ; )

What does it take to make a story rise to the top? Since 1990 I have had the privilege of critiquing screenplays from individuals, a few studio writers, and seeing some pilots. Most of the time they are in the "good range," but rarely rise to excellent or superior... and they aren't that difficult to fix. All of the information necessary to make a screenplay rise above the rest is on the menu button at left, marked "Screen Writing." A few hints are here.

What's New?

Articles and Series with something for everyone

•  Author's Current Movie Projects.    Blog!   Watch the development process of a screenplay from conception to finish, and ask questions about the process.

•  Getting the Concept Right - Saving American Idol.

•  What in the world does "Props" mean, as used by Randy Jackson and others on Fox American Idol? It means "proper respect." Giving props means giving proper respect that is due someone. It is somewhat the opposite of to "diss" (disrespect) someone. "Props" defined at WordNet.

•  How To Write Visually. What is this thing called visual writing, and how do you do it?

•  Worth a second look! Scott Myers' Web site, Go Into The Story offers expertise and information about the movie industry in a daily blog. I learned that comedy is the current big seller. Props to Scott Meyers! (Links to an external site).

•  Copyrights on Images and Content. Is copyright law practical?

•  Beyond Postmodernism - What did we learn, and what will be the next philosophy?

•  Conversations with a Cat. Just for fun.

•  Conveying meaning through non-verbal action. A movie scene study for individuals and groups.

•  Communicating the Message Effectively. Create drama better by learning the basics of effective communication. Whether in drama, speaking, or ministry, many of the principles of effective communication are the same - On sister site One Spirit Resources.com.

•  Story idea: Reality fiction - live! A story idea about real writers and for real writers.

•  Movie Review: Forbidden Kingdom - very entertaining movie with Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

•  Why is this Web site free? Don't you get what you pay for?

•  Polarization: What divides us is how we choose to divide ourselves. Expanding Horizons series: Words and concepts that open windows to new worlds

•  Peace. Words that expand horizons.

•  Story idea: One Week To Live (Drama)

•  Humor (almost < : ) The Writing Disease

•  Ontology of God series

Ontology of God series is now a book: Ontology of God: The voices of the ancients speak.by Dorian Scott Cole. Description. Available now on Scott's Amazon.com store. Formats: Soft cover ebook: Microsoft Reader download (coming) ebook: MobiBook download (coming) ebook: PDF download (coming) Click window to dismiss X Echoing through time are the voices of ancient people telling us about God. From Mesopotamia and Egypt 5000 years ago, often from even earlier oral traditions, every civilization has been inspired to tell us about God. Their voices vary widely and even conflict. Is there a common message that they thought was so important that they had to pass it on? In this book, the ancient voices speak. This study follows the thread of the basic religious concepts of law, mercy, and love that are prominent in many religions. Major religions around the world are investigated up to the launch of the Common Era when most religions had been developed, including religions that later developed independently such as the Mayan. These are messages refined by the fire of experience through the ages. The repeated messages collectively bear the tests of validity. This study also looks at the many methods we use to try to understand God and religious literature. Is the nature of God reflected in what he asks of us? The premise is that it is. By understanding the nature of God, perhaps we can filter out the many competing voices that tell us that God stands for such things as the murder of innocents and destruction. The very nature of religion is illuminated in the light of the voices from the ages. But is ancient religion a path that we have lost, or does history hammer out newer voices to bear the truth of new experience as people try to understand their relationship with God? About the author: Dorian Scott Cole is an independent, cross-disciplinary scholar with education and experience in psychology, philosophy, religion, language, visual semiotics, and technology. Other books and publications: How to Write a Screenplay, Writers Workshop Script Doctor, www.visualwriter.com, and www.onespiritresources.com. Reading type: Mainstream Scholarly Specialist

Purpose

The Visual Writer Web site is a resource sites for story writers (including journalistic and other nonfiction stories) for screen, stage, and print.

This site empahsizes the visual qualities of a story, and good storytelling techniques.

The overriding concern of this site is what kind of world we are creating through the narratives that influence the meaning frameworks of our lives. Stories tell and reinforce narratives, and sometimes even originate narratives. Narratives stimulate diversity and empowerment, or diminish human potential. No specific philosophy or religion is promoted on this site, but they are discussed, and philosophy, religion, and spirituality are encouraged.

The articles are meant to challenge people to research stories more thoroughly and portray society more accurately, but do no harm.

The information on this Web site is freely presented, but that doesn't mean that it is "public domain." The information provided here is copyrighted material, is subject to national and international law, and can't be distributed in any form by any person or institution, in whole or in part, for any commercial purpose or for the purpose of providing collections of information, or as part of another person's or institution's work. Standard citations, properly attributed, including quotes and brief portions of material of course are acceptable and encouraged. Provisions have been made and displayed on individual articles and index pages that permit the distribution of articles in non-commercial enterprises, such as in educational institutions and writers groups, as long as the author's name, Web address, and copyright notice appear on the page. Any other use requires arrangements through direct consultation with the author. Preferrably, articles will be distributed as complete works.

Linking to this site is encouraged. The pages on this site are set up to fully enable the function of the overall site, so the point of entry is irrelevant. Including any page on this site on another site through linking, copying, or by any other means is prohibited. Linking to any graphics file or program on this site is prohibited. Linking to pages on this site so that a page appears within a frameset on another site is discouraged.

Caching of this site is discouraged since caches that don't update on a daily basis provide out of date resources, and caches prevent having accurate knowledge of page visitation and demographics.

Plagiarism (copying)

While properly attributed quotes from this site are encouraged, unattributed copying and other improper use are likely to be discovered. This site is routinely scanned by antiplagiarism companies such as Turnitin.com which detect improper use of material.

Notices:
•  Copyright © 1996 - 2009, Dorian Scott Cole for all content including all text and images.
•  International rights reserved.
•  Some resource material used on this site predates 1996, and is copyrighted material.
•  Registrations pending
•  VisualWord is a trademark for printed materials produced by The Visual Writer, LLC.
•  Writers Port and WritersPort are trademarks of The Visual Writer, LLC.
•  The Visual Writer Web site is a production of TechGenie Media.
•  The Visual Writer, LLC. Communications Services is a company name and trademark.
•  The javascript menu system used on portions of this site is a result of the fine skill and graciousness of Angus Turnbull, and the scripts are available for free from his Web site, http://www.twinhelix.com
•  The popup tooltips used on this site are a result of the fine skill and graciousness of © Erik Bosrup, OverLIB
•  The Visual Writer, LLC. is not associated with Visual Tools, Inc., a maker of writing correction programs using the VisualWriter trademark on writing correction programs.
•  The Visual Writer, LLC. is not associated with PACEL Corp. Pacel's Visual Writer is a suite of software programs that allow you to create Interactive Electronic Documents without writing any code.

The Visual Writer. Mission Statement

Who visits The Visual Writer Web site?

• Growth: doubled in "user sessions" every 12-24 months (consistently from 1996 to 2002).
• Peak: Peak visits surpass 12,000 individual users per month (2 pages per session).
• Demographics: 42% Hollywood area, 33% other US, 25% international (over 80 countries).
• Retention and New: over 60% of those visiting return, with 10 to 15% new visitors each month.
• Top 3 Category popularity (ranking of these 3 varies each month):
  • How To Write A Movie
  • Human Condition
  • Critiques (See Movie Critic)

•  Links on this server are no longer case sensitive.

•  Coding is primarily to XHTML standards.

The Visual Writer Web site was established in 1996, and provides free content and resources to communicators world-wide. Its content was born free and will remain free. Information (education) should be freely shared with all who want it, while skill in using information is what has commercial value.

Welcome to all! I hope you are challenged by these pages.

Page URL:  http://www.visualwriter.com/
Author, Webmaster:  Dorian Scott Cole. The Visual Writer Web site is a production of TechGenie Media.

Other distribution restrictions: None

All pages on this site, copyright © 1996 - 2009, Dorian Scott Cole