Jonah Lehrer’s compelling “Imagine: How Creativity Works” demystifies the “creative process” and will empower you to unleash your creativity regardless of your profession. For screenwriters, certainly, “writer’s block” will be a thing of the past. Particularly fascinating is Lehrer’s exploration of how Pixar repeatedly develops incredibly original, entertainting blockbuster films. Of course, another key to Pixar’s success is the employees study with story guru Robert McKee, but I’ll get into that in an upcoming post.

So, “Imagine” is not a screenwriting book per se, but as screenwriting or any creative endeavor in itself can be a struggle, anything that helps tip the scales is a welcome companion.

The essence of creativity, Lehrer notes, includes the ability to shut off the inner critic — something any screenwriting instructor will tell you. But, more importantly, it’s something anyone is capable of regardless of whether or not we think we are creative; we all can be “creative types.”

See larger image Imagine: How Creativity Works (Hardcover) By (author) Jonah Lehrer List Price: $26.00 USD New From: $12.97 In Stock Used from: $14.60 In Stock Release date March 19, 2012.

Particularly intriguing to me is Lehrer’s detailed look at Pixar’s history and story development process. In addition to its highly collaborative environment, Pixar’s process includes daily critiques of stories at every stage of development — one reason why it is essential for you the screenwriter to have someone else read your material. While you may be the best person to develop and write the story true to your heart, you are not the best judge of what you write. I speak from experience.

Regardless, “Imagine: How Creativity Works” not only is full of intriguing insights that will help you tap into your creative potential, it’s also an entertaining read that reveals Bob Dylan’s creative breakthrough, William Shakespeare’s rise to success, and illustrates why brainstorming is the antithesis of creativity.

I just got back from the Inktip Pitch Summit, where, for a price, you meet with a variety of producers in five-minute sessions to pitch your screenplay, sitcom, reality TV idea or story concept to as many producers as you like throughout the day. And you’re probably thinking, “no way can I condense my fabulously detailed, intricate story into five minutes!” But the reality is the choice is not yours, because, frankly, producers know within 20 seconds or less if they want to devote the next several years shepherding it through development.

Despite your story’s depth, snappy dialogue, and well-constructed plot with great twists and turns, you have mere seconds to hook producers into wanting to hear more, so develop your pitch accordingly.

Keys to a successful pitch

Start by breaking down your story to these basic elements:

1. Who is the main character?
2. What does he/she want (the external goal) but need (the internal character arc)?
3. What is preventing him/her from getting it?
4. What are the consequences if the main character fails to [save the world/get the girl/defeat the antagonist]?

[Note: "Casablanca" spoilers ensue.]

Here are the basic elements of “Casablanca:”

1. Main character: Rick, a rebel with a history of fighting tyranny.
2. Rick wants to remain isolated (the external goal: “I stick my neck out for nobody”), but needs to get back into the fight (the internal goal: “It seems that destiny has taken a hand.”).
3. What is preventing Rick from getting back into the fight: heartbreak, self-pity, emotional detachment.
4. What is at risk for Rick in terms of his want vs. need? Rick risks certain death if he chooses to help Victor Laszlo escape, whereas taking no action basically relegates Rick to a complicitous Nazi.

“But, stupid George, you haven’t even mentioned Ilsa!”

Ilsa, of course, is integral to the plot, but her story is intertwined with Laszlo’s; and, frankly, this is Rick’s story, not Ilsa’s, not Laszlo’s. If Ilsa shows up in Casablanca on her own, with no ties to the “Underground,” then it’s quite a different story, isn’t it? “Casablanca” at its core is about getting Rick to fulfill his destiny: to get back into the fight. Remember, this is a WWII film produced in 1942 about a reluctant American consumed with isolation, so “Casablanca” is much more than a love story.

So, given the depth and brilliance of a story like “Casablanca,” why condense any pitch? Because producers, who are confronted with hundreds of story ideas everyday, simply do not have time to hear the whole story. Producers generally care about:

• Will this film be easy to market? What will the poster look like? Can the story be conveyed in a 30-second TV commercial, or one of the previews you see at the theatre?
• Is the potential audience broad enough to cover the production and promotion costs and generate a profit?
• Will the film’s characters attract the kind of actors who, in turn, will attract investors to finance the film, as well as an audience willing to pay to watch it?
• Would the producers want to spend x years making and promoting — married to — the film?

The goal of a pitch is to get the producer to request your script or succinct synopsis or a meeting to hear a more detailed pitch.

So what could a condensed, 20-second pitch for “Casablanca” sound like?

“I’ve got this story about a guy — a real anti-Fascist renegade — who’s so despondent he won’t even help the leader of the Resistance escape from the Nazis.”

Or, better:

“What if the one man who can help the leader of the Resistance escape from the Nazis won’t — because of a woman?”

In either case, one sentence yields action, romance, intrigue about a main character in multiple levels of conflict (intra-, inter- and extra-personal), and we’re left wondering who this guy is and how will the story unfold.

In other words, we want to know more!

The goal of your pitch is to get producers to want to know more.

Regardless, if you are pitching “Casablanca” to a producer who has no interest in World War II period pieces, you’re out of luck — but only with such producers who have no interest in World War II period pieces. Producers infamously have passed on great screenplays such as “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” and the “Twilight” trilogy, to name a few. The key is to refine your story to its core essence and find producers who have produced stories in a similar vein. The Internet Movie Database — www.imdb.com — is a great place to start. Likewise, consider attending a pitch fest. At InkTip Pitch Summit, producers were grouped by genre, so, in my case, for the sitcoms I wanted to pitch, I identified the producers who were accepting sitcom pitches. For my feature comedies, I pitched to producers who were looking for mid- to high-budget broad comedies.

If you aren’t ready for a full-on pitch fest, check if film festivals in your city have a pitch contest; even if you aren’t ready to enter, it’s fun to attend and hear other writers pitch to producers — all of whom are actively seeking material even if they say otherwise.

ScreenwritingU conducts a variety of online workshops that focus not only on marketing your screenplay but also developing marketable material.

My Alma mater, TheFilmSchool, hosts semi-annual pitch nights in Seattle. If you live elsewhere, see if there are similar events or meet-ups, because, at the end of the day, pitching is a skill you need to master if you intend to generate interest in what you write.

Passing along this great insight from Corey Mandell’s blog: Insight From A Nicholl Screenwriting Competition Judge, in which Ron Birnbach’s words of advice extend beyond screenplay competitions.

Madonna’s SuperBowl halftime show achieved what screenwriters and filmmakers strive to achieve: quite simply, it was entertaining on many levels from start to finish. Regardless of how you feel about her music, Madonna’s show delivered a highly structured full-on multimedia experience that serves as a spot-on “how to” for screenwriters and filmmakers, starting with Madonna’s grand entrance.

Your main character needs a memorable entrance
Your setup of your main character’s “ordinary world” need not be ordinary, or, rather, boring, nor must it be grand, as Madonna’s was, but it must be memorable. Think of the numerous ways Madonna could have entered the stadium; her choice of a grand entrance was not only memorable but it also set the tone for what we could expect from the rest of her Super Bowl halftime show.

Choose carefully and get in and get out quickly
Because Madonna’s show had to fit within a strict time limit, her medley not only had to be carefully selected, but also carefully ordered, and long enough to communicate the essence of each song but short enough to allow for enough songs to represent her musical catalogue. If you think of your story as the “musical catalogue” of your main character, what is necessary to represent who your character is and in what scenes will you place your character that not only are revealing but also advance the plot?

Be creative with your transitions
Madonna’s Super Bowl halftime show incorporated both musical and visual transitions between songs that immediately shifted the tone of her show, and as screenwriters the transitions in our screenplays must be as sound. Barb Doyan’s Extreme Screenwriting newsletter often refers to the importance of transitions between scenes, and she gives great examples of how well-crafted transitions can elevate the visual impact of what you’re writing.

Build to and deliver a grand finale
Once Madonna launched into “Like A Prayer,” there was no doubt the grand finale was underway, leaving the audience to wonder just how, after such a memorable entrance, would Madonna end the spectacle. And, of course, the show ended in memorable spectacular fashion.

So whether you’re making a short for YouTube or writing a screenplay, keep one thing in mind: your job is to be as entertaining as possible. Those are the shorts and scripts that win competitions and lead to managers, agents and sales.

Screenwriting consultant Laurie Hutzler has an excellent blog post on why “War Horse” lacks emotional impact, and here I want to focus on why the film’s key symbol — the Boer War red and tan campaign pennant — lacks the emotional impact it was meant to convey.

When a film’s ending fails to pay off in an emotional way, the problem or problems can be traced to the first act — the first 20 minutes or so — when the story and characters, as well as symbols or objects, are introduced.

Objects typically are introduced in obvious ways whereas symbols or the symbolism of a specific object may not be obvious until the climax or resolution, or perhaps even unrealized until after you’ve seen the film.

SPOILER ALERT: I will reveal “War Horse” plot points below.

In “War Horse,” we’re introduced to the sacred campaign banner when Albert’s mom secretly shows it to him, declaring it represents his father’s bravery because he has chosen to keep it stashed in the barn rather than boast about his Boer War bravado. Albert decides he’s going to keep the campaign pennant, apparently without his father’s knowledge.

The problem with this setup, however, is the campaign pennant fails to represent any connection between Albert and his father; Albert never knew about it before, and his father doesn’t know Albert knows about it now or plans to secretly keep it. The campaign pennant merely exists. Unlike the lightsaber in “Star Wars,” which is gifted to Luke in an ominous “you must respect the ways of the Jedi” tone, the “War Horse” campaign pennant is merely shown to Albert, who decides to keep it. If the campaign pennant had been introduced during a father-son fight about bravery, then at least the context would have been more emotionally fulfilling and the scene would’ve had some conflict. Additionally, the conflict between Albert and his father is far too subtle to lend any emotion to the symbol.

When the British soldiers come to town to recruit soldiers and buy horses, Albert’s dad is forced to sell Joey (the war horse) for cash so he can avoid foreclosure. A distraught Albert tucks the campaign pennant into Joey’s halter — again unbeknownst to Albert’s dad — as a soldier leads the horse away to war. So, it’s still just a campaign pennant lacking an emotional connection between Albert and his dad, except now it represents an actual bond, albeit it a weak one, between Albert and Joey.

Regardless, the ensuing plot, which focuses on Joey, serves to undermine what little connection exists between Albert, his father, and the campaign pennant; the pennant’s symbolism lacks emotional value because it seems to randomly pass from character to character:

• Captain Nicholls ties the pennant to Joey just before battle.
• The Germans capture Joey, and a soldier finds the pennant, and later uses it to help him find his brother.
• A French farmer and his granddaughter find Joey and the pennant, but then the Germans recapture Joey.

Ultimately the campaign pennant finds its way back to Joey by way of the French farmer, who gives it to Albert because he assumes it has some emotional value for him. Then Albert takes Joey back to the farm and dramatically presents the pennant to his dad — which is meant to be an intensely emotional payoff. However, the payoff falls flat because the setup is weak and disjointed.

Symbols that work

Among the more famous symbols is from “On the Waterfront,” when Marlon Brandon’s character, Terry, picks up a glove belonging to Eva Marie Saint’s character, Edie, and caresses it and slips his hand inside it as they stroll through the park — a wonderfully subtle reflection of their developing relationship.

Watch the 4-minute clip from “On the Waterfront” and revel in its subtly; this scene is even more compelling within the full context of the story.

Anything can be a symbol

Story guru Robert McKee, both in his renown screenwriting book and seminar, examines water as a symbol in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s brilliant “Diabolique,” and how Clouzot deftly incorporates water into a full-on image system that spans the entire film.

See larger image Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting (Hardcover) By (author) Robert McKee List Price: $40.00 USD New From: $19.95 In Stock Used from: $14.78 In Stock Release date November 25, 1997.

As McKee notes, “Awareness of a symbol turns it into a neutral, intellectual curiosity, powerless and virtually meaningless.” Of course you’re aware of the glove in “On the Waterfront,” but what McKee is referring to is awareness of what the symbol represents. Even as the writer you may not be aware of a symbol’s “subliminal communication” until deep into the process. Whatever the case, symbols and image systems can add depth to your story while enhancing the emotional experience for your audience. The trick is to do it in a subtle way so that it enriches your story rather than overwhelms it or calls attention to itself.

Probably the best chance you have of selling your screenplay or raising funds for your indie project is to create lead characters that attract top talent, or, if not well-known actors, the best talented actors available. So how do you do that? For starters, take 10 minutes to view this excellent ScreenwritingU.com video, which provides 7 recommendations that are based on interviews with 30 actors’ production companies — that is, production companies formed by actors who are actively seeking material to produce.

As William M Akers notes in his fantastic book, “Your Screenplay Sucks!: 100 Ways to Make It Great,” what you are writing is “actor bait,” therefore the characters and story you create must stand out among the thousands of screenplays that are circulating around Hollywood vying for everyone’s attention.

See larger image Your Screenplay Sucks!: 100 Ways to Make It Great (Paperback) By (author) William M Akers List Price: $19.95 USD New From: $11.56 In Stock Used from: $9.94 In Stock

So you’ve finished your screenplay and are ready to shop it around, but how exactly do you know when your screenplay is ready to stand out in the crowded market? Start with the “First 10 Pages Challenge.” Give the first 10 pages to a variety of friends — not all need be trained screenwriters — and ask them to summarize what they think the story is about. They should be able to identify some key story elements that should be present in the first 10 pages of any entertaining feature script:

• Is the genre easily identifiable? Does the tone of your writing reflect comedy, drama, suspense, horror or whatever the genre of your story?
• Is the main character easily identifiable? Whose story is it? What does the main character want? What does the main character need?
• Is the plot obvious? Or, in the very least, what is the story likely to be about?
• Is theme reflected in your opening scenes?

Also ask your readers if they care about the main character and if your screenplay has hooked them to the extent they want to know what happens next.

See larger image Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need (Paperback) By (author) Blake Snyder List Price: $19.95 USD New From: $10.97 In Stock Used from: $8.18 In Stock

Ultimately you, the writer, need to understand to what degree your friends, the audience, were entertained. If you wrote a comedy but there were no funny moments in the first 10 pages, then you did not write a comedy. Likewise, if you wrote a horror script, there should be an ominous tone underlying your first 10 pages.

Remember, screenplays are blueprints for production, so it is important to quickly and succinctly convey as much about your story as possible:

• Minimal dialogue is good; anything longer than two lines likely can be shortened.
• Succinct action descriptions are good; anything longer than four lines should be shortened or split into separate paragraphs.

See larger image The Coffee Break Screenwriter: Writing Your Script Ten Minutes at a Time (Paperback) By (author) Pilar Alessandra List Price: $24.95 USD New From: $14.94 In Stock Used from: $9.95 In Stock

Do what you can to make the first 10 pages a fast, fun read, and extend that effort to the rest of your script. It’s critical to get feedback on your writing before introducing it to the industry. Then get feedback from someone who is active in the industry to ensure your material meets industry standards. Enter a contest with production companies attached to read the finalists’ screenplays. Pay for industry coverage. Have any friends who are actors? Ask them for feedback.

Such professional feedback is critical because you may be so attached to your story — it may be 100 percent clear in your mind — that you may be unable to judge your ability to translate your story onto the page. And if it’s not all on the page — if you haven’t written with utmost clarity — your story will be misunderstood, under appreciated, and, worse, discarded.

How you introduce your main character not only affects how the audience perceives your character, but, more importantly, whether the audience is likely to be emotionally engaged with your character, and, therefore, your story. Without that engagement, your story is dead because the audience needs to care about the main character and his or her ensuing journey.

How to care about an assassin
Consider the lead roles of “The Professional” and “The American” — both assassins — and how they’re introduced. While both are introduced in a way that highlights their skills as assassins, their character traits are quite contrasting:

• The American: In the opening sequence Jack (George Clooney) shoots his lover in the back of her neck because she has discovered he’s not what he seems.
• The Professional: In the opening sequence Leon (Jean Reno) protects — and most likely saves — a little girl’s life (Matilda, portrayed by Natalie Portman).

So, sure, maybe Clooney’s Jack, as a man with a hidden identity, had to make the necessary-yet-worst of possible choices, but in the opening moments of a film such a choice is not going to generate much sympathy for the guy. Reno’s Leon, however, risks exposing his identity to save Matilda.

Blake Snyder’s aptly titled “Save the Cat” highlights the importance of generating sympathy for your main character, and it’s also one of the better books on quickly developing an industry-friendly structure of your screenplay that will help guide your writing.

See larger image Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need (Paperback) By (author) Blake Snyder List Price: $19.95 USD New From: $10.97 In Stock Used from: $8.18 In Stock

In addition to providing the audience with a reason to care about your main character, it’s also important to introduce your character in an action that reveals his or her key character traits.

Likeable Bad Guys
In “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” we first are introduced to Butch as he discreetly studies the security features of a bank. Clearly, the man is cautious, a planner, a smart man driven more by reason than emotion. So without even saying anything, we know something about him.

See larger image William Goldman - Four Screenplays (Applause Books) (Hardcover) By (author) William Goldman List Price: $25.95 USD New From: $14.45 In Stock Used from: $6.41 In Stock Release date May 1, 2000.

So even though we know from history that Butch and Sundance are outlaws, William Goldman’s script — in the opening sequence — reveals likeable character traits of the two criminals and gives the audience some reason to invest in their journey. It’s a great script to study for other reasons, too, especially mastering when to reveal important facts about your characters.

See larger image Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting (Paperback) By (author) William Goldman List Price: $19.99 USD New From: $4.99 In Stock Used from: $1.02 In Stock

If you attended the Aug. 1 script reading that included my Greek diner sitcom, please take this brief anonymous 8-question survey to share your views about the story and characters. Your feedback is very valuable to me.

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You’ve heard the phrase “writing is rewriting,” and that’s particularly true for screenplays and sitcoms because your goal as the writer must be to entertain, and the whole point of the rewrite is to shape your script into one that maximizes the entertainment value of every level of your story. So what’s the best approach?

Start by reviewing the audio recording of your script reading. I used the voice recorder app on my smartphone to record the actors I recruited for my reading, and, while the audio quality is not the best, it serves its purpose: to allow me to hear the dialogue and audience reaction. I listened to the recording with script in hand and marked where I was bored — usually by excessive, unnecessary dialogue — where the audience reacted, and any other relevant observations, like the length of the reading (the standard network 30-minute sitcom is actually 22 minutes).

(Note: This is part of a series of posts about my sitcom development process in preparation for a free staged script reading Aug. 1, 2011.)

See larger image Elephant Bucks: An Inside Guide to Writing for TV Sitcoms (Paperback) By (author) Sheldon Bull List Price: $24.95 USD New From: $11.94 In Stock Used from: $11.05 In Stock

The next step was to review my sitcom’s plot points:

• Was the main plot effectively and humorously established in the Cold Open (the short scene you see prior to the main credits).
• Did ensuing subplots affect the main plot and humorously introduce complications?
• Was the main plot humorously resolved?

Note a few things here:

1. I’m focusing on plot; and,
2. I’m focusing on humor.

Ultimately, focusing on plot will lead me back to the characters, because, especially in sitcoms, it is the characters’ actions and decisions that will drive the comedy. One-liners are funny, sure, but the sitcoms with longevity are the ones with the intricately drawn characters who fill in the spectrum from normalcy to absurdity and who are forced into situations in which their character traits will clash. So, without even opening my screenwriting software — Final Draft — to edit the script, I’m already revising the story.

See larger image Final Draft Version 8 (Software) List Price: $299.00 USD New From: $169.00 In Stock Release date May 4, 2009.

The other thing I noticed when reviewing the audio recording was the least interesting lines of dialogue came from the least developed characters, so that’s another task for the rewrite: adding depth to those characters — either by enhancing their character traits or back stories or just changing who they are and what dramatic function their presence will fulfill. It’s one thing to ensure no two characters are alike, but it’s another to ensure each character comes from a place of depth and whose actions in some way affect the plot.

With that foundation for the rewrite, revising dialogue will come easy, and I can also revisit how the characters are introduced and brainstorm new actions and decisions that can enhance the episode’s humor. And to get a rough idea of the new length of my revised script I’ll use Final Draft’s text-to-speech feature, which will allow me to hear the script read aloud, albeit by goofy computerized voices.

So there it is. If I can cover all that in these next few days hopefully the revised script will elicit more laughter and the characters will be more fun for the actors.