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

For Firefox users, the top three items are repeated at the bottom of these items.

An Open Letter to Microsoft - VISTA: Cure worse than the Disease?

Prejudice in the US: What is the message of Jeremiah Wright? - On sister site One Spirit Resources.com

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

•  Wild Kids: Increasing violence among youth. An article on sister site, One Spirit Resources.com.

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

•  Update on the Economy - State of the Onion, January 2008 Challenges section.

•  Update: Change: Elections 2008 Challenges section.

•  Update: Sugar again: The (imperfect?) Perfect Mood Altering Chemical - misleading research on sugar? Can artificial sweeteners make you fat?

•  Update on the Economy - State of the Onion, January 2008 Challenges section.

•  State of the Onion, January 2008 Economics and healthcare. Challenges section.

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

•  Change: Elections 2008 Challenges section.

•  Internet Justice What kind of world are we creating? Challenges section

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

•  The Armenian Genocide vote: Are we wallowing in the past like a pig in a mud puddle. What kind of world are we creating?

•  Illegal Immigration: Do we want to live in a world where vigilantism takes the place of effective government?

•  Small government or right-sized government: Do we want to live in a world where government is ineffective? (Challenges section.)

•  Petraeus - reevaluation. State Of The Onion, April 2007 Unpeeling the onion, Part 1: Peace.

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

•  Update: The Perfect Mood Altering Chemical - more comments about misleading statements on sugar.

•  Update: The Day The Music Died. Whew! Maybe the world is going to make it.

•  Designer labels for Iraq: Do we want to live in a world where labels substitute for thinking? (Challenges section: Peace series.)

•  Update: The Perfect Mood Altering Chemical

•  Computer Geeks only: Optical Storage Method Using Color for very high capacity mass storage (apologies to others)

•  State Of The Onion, May 2007 Unpeeling the onion, Part 2: The Economy.

•  State Of The Onion, April 2007 Unpeeling the onion, Part 1: Peace.

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

•  The End Is the news media dying? Can people care about news? Journalism series: applying story to news. Stay for the pie and coffee.

•  The Middle Is the news media dying? Can people care about news? Journalism series: applying story to news. What forms a news story?

•  The Missing Santa

•  Story idea: Fooman (Drama)

•  Should the Internet Be Neutral? Challenges for Democracy series, Article 7

•  The Beginning Is the news media dying? Can people care about news? Journalism series: applying story to news. The hook.

•  Night Of The Dead - The Halloween Tradition

•  Beginning, Middle, End. Is the news media dying? Can people care about news? Journalism series: applying story to news.

•  Peace. Words that expand horizons.

•  A Return to Values A big, but worthy, project for writers, educators, and the media. Challenges series.

•  Story idea: One Week To Live (Drama)

•  Dis' Is Important Human Conditon series

•  Humor (almost < : ) The Writing Disease

•  Worth a look! The amazing art at Studio Sandi

•  Update: Meeting The Challenges

•  Update: Intelligence and Freewill - Six Schrödinger cats spinning on their quantum tails.

•  Puzzle This. A tribute to veterans, and four puzzles, including media, government, political analyst (Am I a spy?), and code breaker.

•  True Religion One of the last in this Ontology of God series research project, in the Human Condition section, Article 8

Prejudice in the US: What is the message of Jeremiah Wright? - On sister site One Spirit Resources.com

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

•  Wild Kids: Increasing violence among youth. An article on sister site, One Spirit Resources.com.

An Open Letter to Microsoft - VISTA: Cure worse than the Disease?

Series

The Human Condition (multiple series)

Traditions: An occasional series about symbols that add meaning to our lives.

Ontology of God: A research project into what God is about

• Article 8:True Religion
• Article 7: Love
• Article 6: Mercy
• Article 5: The Law
• Article 4: Claims And Expectations
• Article 3: (Coming) What God Is Not
• Article 2: Offending Others
• Article 1: Ontology Of God
• Who Killed Christ?
• God Titles
• The Role Of Religion
• Religious Change and Disgusting Things
• Four Perspectives On The God of Israel
• What About The Problem Of God

Challenges (Multiple Series)

Series exploring writing for media, and asking, "What kind of world are we creating for ourselves?"

• Should the Internet be neutral?
• The Difficulty Of Producing News In An Entertainment Venue
  Do we want to live in a world in which people easily lose perspective?
• The Challenge For The Four Pillars Of The Western World
  Do we want a world in which ideology leads to destructive living?

The Challenges for Democracy (series)

• Should the Internet be neutral? Article 7
• The Challenges For Democracy series. Article 6: Freedom of the Press Do we want the news media to be free?
• The Challenges For Democracy series. Article 5: Paradigms Do we want a world in which truth ultimately fails?
• The Challenges For Democracy series: Is the US medical system sliding into an inevitable sub-standard system?
• The Challenges For Democracy. Article 3: Ensure the safety of all people. A message of peace? You decide.
• The Challenges For Democracy series. Article 2: Social Fabric: Who Rules Who? Do we want a world in which people are ruled or served?
• The Challenges For Democracy series. Article 1: Winner takes all - Do we want a world in which "winner takes all" is the hallmark of democratic representation?

The Challenges for Capitalism (series)

• Article 7: Strategy and Recommendations
• Article 6: Intellectual Capital
• Article 5: Responsibility and the Social Contract
• Article 4: The game.
• Article 3: Competing against ourselves.
• Article 2: To Regulate Or Not To Regulate?
• Reference: Social contract
• Article 1: The Pursuit of What? Do we want a world in which greed is the dominant driving force of the economic system?

General

• What's In A Word? - the full book

Dorian's Movie Reviews & Critiques

• 13 Going On 30.
• Hidalgo.
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. A ten!!!

Thought Provoking: 
- Society for Constructivism in the Human Sciences
- After PostModernism, Univ. of Chicago. Gendlin
- International Network on Personal Meaning 
- Editorial Question (current events)
- The Human Condition - Children with guns
- Professors World Peace Academy
- Institute on Globalization
- World Resources Institute
- Conflict Research Consortium
- Emotional Fitness Training(TM) Inc. Stress relief and newsletter

Purpose

The Visual Writer and Writers Port are resource sites for story writers (including journalistic and other nonfiction stories) for screen, stage, and print.

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.

Visual Writer writer's oath: Challenge people, 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.

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).
• Reference: Visits surpass 12,000 sessions per month (2 pages per session), roughly equivalent to individual visitors.
• 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)
• Technology: This site is optimized for an 800 x 600 screen size (760px usable width, 15" screen, except Mac., 660px for printable pages), 16 bit color, CSS, JavaScript, DHTML, client side processing, and browsers IE 5x, AOL 4x, and Mozilla (Netscape) 4x up. IE 4x and Mozilla 3x browsers do not support some of the technologies in use. Client side JavaScript is used extensively. Mac users, AOL users, and those with restrictive ISPs may experience difficulty downloading some files, and every effort is made to assist those users, with future plans to provide only HTML downloads.
• Links on this server are no longer case sensitive.

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.

Other distribution restrictions: None

All pages on this site, copyright © 1996 - 2006, Dorian Scott Cole