Write the manuscript first, or the screenplay? By- Michael McKown Co-founder & president, Ghostwriters Central, Inc. Book or Read More...
The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.
Every writer with half a brain knows to surround himself or herself with editors who are smarter, far more articulate and infinitely better looking.
What I loved most about calling myself a reporter was that it gave me an excuse to show up anyplace.
It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.
Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.
Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.
To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.
No writer has ever yet been known to hang himself as long as he had another chapter left.
Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.
I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.

























