Mike Boas

Harder to find cheap writing software

March 19, 2025 Mike Boas

The screenwriting software from John August, Highland, got a new version this week. (It’s now called Highland Pro.) Unfortunately, it’s moved to a subscription model. I gladly paid a one-time fee for Highland 2 a few years ago… which I suppose I’ll never be able to install again? Still a fine program with some interesting new features, but if you’re an amateur writer, you may not want to spend $60 a year until the end of your days. Certainly if you make your living writing, it’s different. However, I’m not writing every week, or even every month.

The news prompted me to update the recommended software page here on the Rochester Writers Workshop website. A lot of writing software has jumped in price in the last few years! As before, if you’re looking for free on Windows or Linux, try TRELBY. Free software for the Mac is hard to come by, unless you’re using the first-free-script option with freemium apps like WriterDuet or Studiobinder. Sadly, Celtx doesn’t appear to have a free plan anymore.

I’ve been using Scrivener, which is a one-time $60 fee (or $50 educational pricing). I like that it has notecard options and ways to maintain sub-documents and photos for research purposes. One drawback is I’ll have to buy it again if I want it on both my Mac and PC laptop.

Here’s the updated RWW software page:
https://www.rwwny.org/software/

Think Shorts

February 18, 2025 Mike Boas

Kent Lamm of Standard Story Company has a terrific video this week called “3 Traps of Short Film Writing” about the traps many filmmakers fall into when writing their shorts. They are, in brief:

1) Scope
2) Redundancy
3) Lack of “Dramatic Writing”

What’s he mean by all that? Check out the video here:

Writing animated features

January 3, 2025 Mike Boas

This week’s Scriptnotes podcast is an interview with Linda Wolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King).

Scriptnotes Podcast (356 – Writing Animated Movies

https://scriptnotes.libsyn.com/356-writing-animated-movies-encore

This is a great show for those wondering how animated features are written and produced. You don’t just walk in the front door at Disney and sell a spec! 🙂

They talk a lot about how animation writers are not part of the WGA. Good to know if you want to be a working writer with benefits and residuals.

Writing farewells

June 28, 2024 Mike Boas

This week’s Scriptnotes podcast talks about saying goodbye in screenplays. The shownotes for the episode include links to several video examples from the finished films. Check it out! https://johnaugust.com/2024/farewell-scenes

Subtext in dialogue

June 25, 2024 Mike Boas

Excerpted from Gotham Writers at https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/ask-writer/in-dialogue-what-is-subtext

Subtext is the meaning beneath the dialogue; what the speaker really means, even though he’s not saying it directly. As humans, we often don’t articulate our thoughts exactly. We’re thinking on our feet as we talk, processing other stimuli, like body language, and struggling with our own concerns and emotions as well as those of the listener. In fiction, this kind of miscommunication can add authenticity, create dramatic tension, and even reveal deeper truths.

Here’s a sample of a conversation between a newlywed couple, written by Dorothy Parker.

See if you can see what the husband is thinking about but not saying!

“Well, you see, sweetheart,” he said, “we’re not really married yet. I mean. I mean—well, things will be different afterwards. Oh, hell. I mean, we haven’t been married very long.”

“No,” she said.

“Well, we haven’t got much longer to wait now,” he said. “I mean—well, we’ll be in New York in about twenty minutes. Then we can have dinner, and sort of see what we feel like doing. Or I mean. Is there anything special you want to do tonight?”

“What?” she said.

“What I mean to say,” he said, “would you like to go to a show or something?”

“Why, whatever you like,” she said. “I sort of didn’t think people went to theaters and things on their—I mean, I’ve got a couple of letters I simply must write. Don’t let me forget.”

“Oh,” he said. “You’re going to write letters tonight?”

THE CHALLENGE:

Write a scene in which the dialogue appears to be about one thing on the surface, but is really about something else.

How do you communicate that to the audience? Get them to read between the lines! Try to do this through dialogue, not relying on action or situation.

Download the challenge here.

Poirot’s theme

June 11, 2024 Mike Boas

Think of the theme of your screenplay as something the main character has to learn. Traditionally, they believe the opposite, then learn the lesson represented by the theme.

What is the essential question your movie is asking? Make your theme a declarative statement. The answer to that question.

One of my favorite examples of theme and anti-theme is in the recent Murder on the Orient Express. In the first act, Poirot states his world view. “There is right, there is wrong. There is nothing in between.” The anti-theme, because…

Poirot then spends the movie investigating a crime that puts his view to the test. By the end, he admits to himself that sometimes murder is justified. He comes to believe there IS a place between right and wrong, and acts on that belief.

So the essential question, “Is there a gray area between right and wrong?” is answered as “Yes”. The theme as a statement would be “Sometimes, murder can be justified.”

When I looked up this scene online, I found the dialogue quoted on IMDB (see below).

When I compared it to a PDF of the screenplay dated 2/20/15, I did not see that crucial line of dialogue. That tells me that the writer and producers at some later point decided that Poirot’s worldview needed to be spelled out more clearly for the audience. By doing so, it underlined the theme more clearly.

Everything is Alive Podcast

May 27, 2024 Mike Boas

Writers should be able to think about any situation from any point of view. Maybe the story you’re considering would be more interesting from a different person’s perspective. So, for example, a bank robbery could be told from the point of view of the bank robber, the teller, the manager, the security officer, a five-year-old kid who just happens to be in the bank, etc.

What about inanimate objects? Can they have a point of view? Take a listen to the Everything is Alive podcast, where objects and animals get voiced through the power of improv acting.

Listen at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everything-is-alive/id1388419519

“The Choice” writing challenge

May 14, 2024 Mike Boas

Characters are defined by the choices they make. And often, a character’s bad choice kicks off act two of a feature screenplay.

As they say: “Bad choices make good stories.”

Another wise man, Aristotle, had this to say: “Character is revealed in choice: character is the habit of moral choice when the choice isn’t obvious.”

WRITE THE SCENE

Write a scene (or expand to a short script) where a character must make a choice. It can be major (whether or not to take revenge) or seemingly minor (ketchup or mustard).

I say “seemingly” minor because if it’s just whether to have ketchup or mustard on one’s hot dog, there may not be obvious repercussions. Try to frame the choice so it has meaning to the situation you’re writing.

What goes into your character making that decision? What in their backstory has lead them to this decision? What events does this choice kick off? Who else is affected by this choice?