Archive for the “Screenwriting From Iowa” Category


I don’t know what the odds are for one of your sons becoming a head coach of one of the 33 NFL football teams, but there odds of having two sons as NFL head coaches has to be pretty much against you. And the odds of those two sons coaching opposing teams in the Super [...]

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Yesterday I drove through French Lick, Indiana. It’s not a big town—under 2 square miles and under 2,000 residents. But it is a town I wanted to visit for several decades now as it’s the hometown of Larry Bird. The great Hall-of-Fame basketball player isn’t a screenwriter, he doesn’t strike at a major theme of [...]

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(Had a technical glitch while traveling and had trouble posting this yesterday.) I saw the Google icon today was of Jackie Robinson on account of January 31 being his birthday. This Brian Helgeland (Oscar-winner for L.A. Confidential)  written and directed movie 42 (Robinson’s jersey number when he played for the Dodgers) will be released this April. But [...]

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Cedar Falls, Iowa gave me a proper send off this morning as several inches fell on my Durango before I could head south. On Sunday we had an ice storm, on Monday we had a thunderstorm, today we had  snow storm, and if all goes right with my trip I’ll be in sunny 70 degree [...]

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“Because I have a son who’s had some of these emotional situations I immediately related to [the novel Silver Linings Playbook] otherwise I never would have. And I said, what a wonderful story, and a wonderful world that is tragic, heartbreaking, emotional, and ultimatley funny and uplifting….While I was waiting the five years to make [...]

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“I’ve overcome the blow, I’ve learned to take it well…” Jim Croce/Operator “Rainy day people all know there’s no sorrow they can’t rise above…” Gordon Lightfoot/ Rainy Day People Perhaps the reason I decided to start a post about the movie Silver Linings Playbook with a couple lines from seventies songs is the movie has [...]

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“Find a strong-willed character with a nothing-will-stand-in-my-way determination to reach his or her goal confronting strong opposition, add a strong action line, keep throwing obstacles (conflicts) in his or her path, and you’re well on your way to a gripping screenplay.” William Froug “START, EVERY TIME, WITH THIS INVIOLABLE RULE: THE SCENE MUST BE DRAMATIC. IT MUST START [...]

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As this blog Screenwriting from Iowa…and Other Unlikely Places enters into its sixth year this week here’s a fitting thought from the always informative blog Go Into the Story: “Assuming you’re not a native Californian or a long-time transplant to L.A., you developed your writing voice elsewhere. Iowa, New Jersey, England, Norway, wherever. The sum of [...]

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“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.” President John F. Kennedy “I have a tendency to go places where I want to go without knowing where that’s going to take me.” Academy & Emmy Winning Director/Actor Kevin Costner When [...]

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“It always comes down to the script. Write a great one, you can be a zillion years old living in Antarctica and Hollywood will want you.” Scott Myers Go Into the Story Thank you. Today marks the fifth anniversary of the blog Screenwriting from Iowa…and Other Unlikely Places, and I’d like to thank you for reading [...]

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