Screenwriting From Iowa

While tears are not the best indicator of whether a film is great or not, it is an indicator that a viewer was moved. As so was the case yesterday when I saw Marley & Me. There’s been maybe a half a dozen movies in my lifetime that have brought water to my eyes—the first [...]

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As I close out this anniversary week of seeing Juno and starting this blog it seemed fitting to find a quote that connects screenwriting and blogging.
“Although there’s been a tradition of journalists such as Nora Ephron, Nick Pileggi, Paul Attanasio and Stephen Schilff jumping into screenwriting, Cody is one of the first from the new [...]

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Yesterday  marked the one year anniversary of my blog Screenwriting from Iowa. In fact, January 22, 2008 was my entrance into writing any blog. I would like to thank all the people for wandering to this site over the past year because without growing stats I’m not sure I would have had the energy or [...]

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Since it’s the middle of winter as I look at the Oscar nominations today, one title stands out—Frozen River. I don’t know much about that film other than it was a Sundance Film Festival winner. So I dug around a little and found out about the screenwriter, Courtney Hunt, who has been nominated for Best [...]

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Minnesota-born writer Sinclair Lewis knew more about just writing when he wrote, “Winter is not a season, it’s an occupation.” Unfortunately it doesn’t pay well. In fact, it can cost you money.
After five years of living in the Midwest this really hit home over the weekend. After being on the road shooting footage for a [...]

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Let’s put political views and rhetoric aside for the day and just step back and look at this moment.
Just a few minutes ago Barack Obama became the first African-America president in the history of the United States. 
To put this in perspective when Obama was born in 1961 the Voters Rights Acts that allowed blacks to [...]

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How about that Kurt Warner? If you don’t follow pro football you may not know that his underdog story is one of the greatest in sports history. And now, with a win in yesterday’s playoff game, the 37-year-old adds another chapter to his hall-of-fame career by leading the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl. If [...]

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How about that Kurt Warner? If you follow pro football at all you know his underdog story is one of the greatest in sports history. And now the 37-year-old adds another chapter to his hall-of-fame career by leading the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl. If you like comeback stories Kurt Warner is your guy. [...]

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On this day in 1859 the local paper where I live was established. As The Courier turns 150 today I want to look at its most famous reporter, Sinclair Lewis. Yes, the novelist, playwright, short story writer Sinclair Lewis worked for a brief time in Waterloo, Iowa before going on to publish over 20 books [...]

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Though screenwriter Robert Siegel grew up in New York, he got his Midwest roots by graduating from the University of Michigan and then made headlines in Madison, Wisconsin. Literally. As the editor for the great fake newspaper The Onion Siegal came up with those crazy headline.
But after 13 years he quit and began to write [...]

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