Saturday, September 8, 2012

Horror Film Scripts: Free Downloads

Hello, everyone.
I have been getting a lot of email asking where to find horror film scripts to read. There are a lot of you out there interested in this genre. I will admit that I like it too. So here is a list of horror films for you. Just click on the titles.

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Sixth Sense   by M. Night Shyamalan
  undated, unspecified draft script in text format   Host Site Sci-Fi and Fantasy Scripts Site
  genre(s): Thriller, Horror, Mystery, Suspense

The 9th Gate   by Roman Polanski, John Brownjohn and Enrique Urbizu
  undated, unspecified draft script in html format   Host Site Horror and Suspense
  genre(s): Horror, Thriller

Addicted to Murder 5: The Last Vampire   by Ron Ford and Kevin Lindenmuth
  undated, unspecified draft script in html format   Host Site Addicted to Murder
  genre(s): Horror

Alien vs. Predator   by Shane Salerno
  june 24th 2004 final shooting script in rtf format   Host Site Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror, Thriller, Action, Sci-Fi

Alone In The Dark   by Elan Mastai, Michael Roesch & Peter Scheerer
  August 19, 2003 (double cherry revision) draft script in html format   Host Site Just Another Guy In Hollywood
  genre(s): Action, Horror, Thriller

The Birds   by Daphne Du Maurier & Evan Hunter
  march 2, 1962 final draft 2nd revision script in html format   Host Site The Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror, Thriller

The Birds   by Daphne Du Maurier & Evan Hunter
  march 2, 1962 final draft 2nd revision script in html format   Host Site The Weekly Script
  genre(s): Horror, Thriller

The Birds   by Daphne Du Maurier, Evan Hunter
  march 2, 1962 final draft 2nd revision script in html format   Host Site Horror and Suspense
  genre(s): Horror, Thriller

The Cat People   by DeWitt Bodeen
  undated, unspecified draft script in html format   Host Site The Val Lewton Screenplay Collection
  genre(s): Drama, Romance, Horror, Thriller

Curse of the Cat People   by DeWitt Bodeen
  final draft script in html format   Host Site Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror

The Curse   by Jacqueline Garry
  final draft script in text format   Host Site The Curse: An Independent Romantic Comedy Thriller
  genre(s): Comedy, Horror

Dawn of the Dead 1978   by George A. Romero
  early draft script in text format   Host Site On Line Horror and Suspense Scripts
  genre(s): Horror

Dawn of the Dead 2004 by James Gunn, Rewrite by Michael Tolkin, Based on the original screenplay by George A. Romero

April 24, 2003 Full White Draft. script in pdf format Host Site On Line Horror and Suspense Scripts
genre(s): Horror

Day of the Dead   by George A. Romero
  final draft script in text format   Host Site On Line Horror and Suspense Scripts
  genre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

The Exorcist   by William P. Blat
  shooting script in html format   Host Site On Line Horror and Suspense Scripts
  genre(s): Horror

Fallen   by Nicholas Kazan
  may 17, 1996 4th revision script in pdf format   Host Site The Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror

Feast - early draft   by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunston
  undated early draft script in text format   Host Site The Weekly Script
  genre(s): Horror

Feast - revised draft   by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunston
  may 3, 2004 revised draft script in text format   Host Site The Weekly Script
  genre(s): Horror

Ghost Ship by Donald Henderson Clarke (story by Leo Mittler)
final draft (negative ship date november. 5, 1943) script in html format Host Site The Val Lewton Screenplay Collection

genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Horror

Go To Hell   by Michael J. Heagle & Raymond P. Whalen
  first draft script in pdf format   Host Site Style Commando Entertainment
  genre(s): Adventure, Comedy, Horror

Gothika   by Sebastian Gutierrez
  december 8, 2002 revised second draft script in pdf format   Host Site Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror

Gremlins   by Chris Columbus
  April 27, 1982 draft script in pdf format   Host Site Horrorlair
  genre(s): Comedy, Horror, Fantasy

The Grudge   by Stephen Susco (based on Ju-on by Takashi Shimizu
  January 26, 2004 production draft script in pdf format   Host Site Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Halloween   by John Carpenter & Debra Hill
  April 10, 1978 Shooting Draft script in html format   Host Site Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror

Halloween   by John Carpenter & Debra Hill
  shooting draft script in text format   Host Site On Line Horror and Suspense Scripts
  genre(s): Horror

House of 1000 Corpses   by Rob Zombie
  march 31, 2000 revised draft script in text format   Host Site Movie Page
  genre(s): Horror

House of the Damned   by Brendan Broderick & Victoria Muspratt
  october 18, 1995 fourth draft script in text format   Host Site On Line Horror and Suspense Scripts
  genre(s): Horror

House on Haunted Hill   by Dick Beebe
  january 13, 1999 blue revision, production draft script in html format   Host Site The Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror

The Howling   by John Sayles
  march 4, 1980, revised final draft script in html format   Host Site The Howling The Unofficial Site
  genre(s): Horror

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer   by Trey Callaway
  1998 published edition script in text format   Host Site On Line Horror and Suspense Scripts
  genre(s): Horror, Mystery

I Walked with a Zombie   by Curt Siodmak & Ardel Wray
  10/12/42 draft script in html format   Host Site The Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror

Interview with the Vampire   by Anne Rice, based on the novel by Anne Rice
  april 1992 second draft script in pdf format   Host Site Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror

Peeping Tom   by Leo Marks
  1959 Shooting draft script in text format   Host Site The Weekly Script
  genre(s): Drama, Horror, Thriller

Pet Sematary   by Stephen King
  1986 first draft script in html format   Host Site The Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror

Pet Sematary II   by Richard Outten (revised by David S. Goyer)
  january 6, 1991revised 3rd draft script in doc format   Host Site The Movie Page
  genre(s): Horror

The Shining   by Diane Johnson & Stanley Kubrick
  post production script in html format   Host Site The Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror

Sleepy Hollow   by Kevin Yagher and Andrew Kevin Walker
  april 10, 1995 third draft script in html format   Host Site The Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror, Thriller

Sleepy Hollow   by Andrew Kevin Walker and Tom Stoppard
  september 29, 1998 shooting draft script in html format   Host Site The Daily Script
  genre(s): Horror, Thriller

Texas Chainsaw Massacre   by Kim Henkel & Tobe Hooper
  incomplete script in text format   Host Site A Geocities Site
  genre(s): Horror, Thriller

Texas Chainsaw Massacre   by L.K. Kit Carson
  early draft script in doc format   Host Site The Texas Terror
  genre(s): Horror

They   by Brendan Hood
  spec script script in html format   Host Site Jo Blo
  genre(s): Horror

When A Stranger Calls   by Steve Feke & Fred Walton
  undated shooting draft script in text format   Host Site The Weekly Script
  genre(s): Horror, Thriller

Willard   by Glen Morgan (based on the book by Gilbert Ralston)
  undated, unspecified draft script in html format   Host Site Horror Suspense
  genre(s): Comedy, Horror

The Witches of Eastwick   by Michael Cristofer (based on the book by John Updike)
  may 1986 revised draft script in pdf format   Host Site Daily Script
  genre(s): Comedy, Fantasy, Horror

The Witching Hour   by Anne Rice
  undated, unspecified draft script in text format   Host Site Sci Fi and Fantasy Scripts Site
  genre(s): Horror

Go forward and win!

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Other services are at regular price.

Query Letters: $25.00 Flat Fee

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Friday, September 7, 2012

5 TIPS FOR DIALOGUE THAT MAKES STRONG MEN WEEP

With Playwright Daniel Heath

As we now know, good dialogue is the elusive dark matter of the scriptwriting galaxy. Which is why we asked Daniel Heath, winner of the 2007 Emerging Playwright Award, to share his dialogue-writing rocket science. Daniel has had short plays produced for the Playwrights' Center of San Francisco and is a member of the San Francisco Playground Writer's pool. He also sporadically maintains a blog at scratchfiction.com. Take it away, Daniel! And thank you for you contribution.

As we all know, nothing brings on the man-tears like achingly perfect dialogue. But how? I've written bales of lousy dialogue myself, so I have a few pointers:

1. Don't try to write dialogue the way people actually talk.

Listen to yourself talk for 10 seconds to hear what I mean. We use an astonishing amount of filler:

ME: Um, yeah, so, I'm, uh, like, [expletive], y'know...

Moreover, we spend most of our time not saying anything:

THEM: Hey.
US: Hi.
THEM: How are you?
US: I'm good. How are you?
AUDIENCE: Unnngh. (falls unconscious)

It may be true to life, but it's incredibly boring, and all it tells us is that neither person is paying any attention. A guideline: If the audience can guess almost exactly what the next line will be, write something better.

ZORA: I love you, Max.
MAX: I love you, too.
AUDIENCE: We hate this play! (they turn on each other and fight savagely)

Try this question: How could I write this in a way that tells the audience something about the character(s) speaking? You and your audience may learn something:

ZORA: I love you, um... it's Max, isn't it?
MAX: It's anything you want it to be if you've got 50 dollars in your pocket.

2. Avoid writing dialogue that no one would ever say.

Yeah, I know, I just told you not to write dialogue like people talk. Now I'm telling you to make sure you write dialogue that we can imagine a human saying. Yes, it's contradictory, but this is art—paradox is the vodka-and-Red-Bull of human creativity.

The first trick is to read your dialogue out loud. Characters should use each others' names very sparingly. Watch out for really big or archaic words, especially if you're not 100% sure what they mean. Try not to use awkward, formal phrasing unless you're doing it on purpose. And watch out for how long you let your characters speak—most of the time humans don't let each other go more than a clause or two before interrupting.

CLEO: Lupe, you look positively evanescent in that dress. And one more thing, Lupe, insofar as I consider myself to be your friend for all these long years, and find myself therefore beholden to the necessity to say to you that actually there is a fleck of some green matter, some parsley, I think right-- (points) There.

Instead try:

CLEO: Girl, you've got--
LUPE: I know. I put it there.

Yes, you can write stylized dialogue. Your characters can speak better or worse, more elliptically or more directly, than normal humans do. But on the one hand don't make it too flat and obvious, and on the other don't make it too outlandish and artificial.

3. When you use dialogue to convey factual information, make sure we don't notice.

The kids call this "As You Know, Bob," dialogue, and it goes something like this:

ZEKE: As you know, Bob, we're stuck in this here fuel-tanker rig heading down a mountainside and our brakes are shot. It's only a matter of time until we hit a turn we can't make and eight thousand gallons of unleaded go up like the Lord himself in all His glory.

When you thudding-ly inform us of things that the characters already know, you break the illusion of your script and bust us out of the an otherwise poignant moment. Be sneakier:

ZEKE: Wife and kids?
BOB: Naw.
ZEKE: Ain't missing nothing.
BOB: You try them brakes again?
ZEKE: Been tryin'. No metal left to grind.
BOB: You reckon you're going to heaven?
ZEKE: Reckon if I am they'll have me driving a tanker truck there, too.
BOB: Don't need no gas in heaven. Everything runs on angel piss and sunshine.
ZEKE: Find out in a second here.
BOB: I told you to take it easy on them brakes.

4. If it's obvious, you don't have to spell it out. But if it's not obvious, you do.

When you're doing your job, your audience should usually understand how your characters are feeling at any given moment.

(IVAN slaps ANGELIQUE)
ANGELIQUE: Ouch! That hurt! You [expletive]! Why did you do that?

Give us credit; don't tell us what's obvious. We like that—it makes us feel smart. Instead, tell us something we didn't know about your character:

(IVAN slaps ANGELIQUE.)
ANGELIQUE: The last guy who did that is still scratching his stumps.

On the other hand, if you've got a character with a strange, hard-to-get psyche, then go ahead and lay it all out, precisely, in detail. You've heard the advice, "Show don't tell." It's very good advice most of the time, but sometimes you need to do both:

(IVAN slaps ANGELIQUE.)
ANGELIQUE: I kind of want to cut your hand off, but then I also kind of want to teach you to play Bach. I want to show you how to use your hands to bring joy into the world—joy for yourself. Joy for others. And then I'll probably cut if off anyway, but I feel like the Bach would be a really nice touch.

The same rule applies to stage directions—give the actors space, don't nag or micromanage (they'll just ignore you anyway). Take it easy on the exclamation marks. Take it easy on physical instructions. Try to make your dialogue strong enough to show them how to play the part the way you see it. But if you want something strange or counterintuitive, then lay it out clearly.

5. Your dialogue is meant to make your audience feel something.

Whatever the goal of your script, remember that you are trying to make people feel something. Keep in mind that emotions take time. Your characters are going to change during your story; give us space on the page to feel along with them. If you try to pack seven emotional reversals in a short speech, you're likely to shake us off. Let new emotions sink in, and once we're with you, take that seriously. If you're drowning cute animals and you get us all bummed out, don't expect us to be laughing at your jokes two lines later.

Your dialogue and your story are just tools to make your audience feel something—that's why the audience is sitting still for you. Given that, my final rule is more of an anti-rule: You can break every scriptwriting rule, every plot rule, every rule of basic human decency and hygiene, if it serves the emotional point you are trying to convey. Depending on the situation, sometimes dialogue that's absolutely wrong is absolutely right.

Go forward and win!

Logline Service

Screenplays

Thursday, September 6, 2012

THRILLER WRITING MADE EASY: 4 STEPS TO STARTING A THRILLER

Want to write a thriller, but stuck on the beginning? Novelist Daniel Palmer uses his own experience and that of his father (bestseller Michael Palmer) and lays out the essentials to get you on your way.

Step 1. Choose your rhino.

Michael Palmer once was asked to describe writing a book. His answer? Writing a book is like following a recipe for rhinoceros stew. The first step of which is to find the rhino—which isn’t your plot, character or hook. It’s that huge idea that defines the book, such as a deadly virus. Daniel’s latest rhino was identity theft.

Step 2. Formulate the What-If question.

Daniel said to think of this essentially as your elevator pitch—that pithy, snappy description of your book you should have at the ready should you be stuck in an elevator with an agent or editor. Cap it at two sentences, 25 words. It needs to be as tight as possible, and it shouldn’t delve into things like characters or plot twists. “I spend days doing those two sentences, and I would urge you to do the same with yours,” Daniel said.

One What-If example from Michael’s work: What if everybody involved in a surgery six years ago is being murdered one by one?

Step 3. Answer the What-If question.

The answer to this pivotal question is what’s known as the MacGuffin: the reason people think they’re reading the book. (MacGuffins can be a confusing subject, but they’re key.) Ultimately, Daniel said the answer is that it doesn’t matter—people read to the end of a book for the characters. But you need something to keep them flipping pages. The MacGuffin is simply that tool that gets them to stay with the characters.

Daniel said when you have the answer to your What-If, you should file it away and forget about it for a while. If you focus solely on the MacGuffin, your book will be plot-heavy and bogged down by it, and you’ll have lost your readers.

Don't be scared.

Step4. Figure out who you’re going to write about.

“You’re looking for your character who’s got the absolute most at stake, and that’s the person who you want your story to be about.” Daniel said to develop your arc as they go along, chasing the MacGuffin, and they’ll change and grow.

BONUS: Step 5. Write on.

Daniel likes to think of plot as a “cannibal’s stew”—a simmering cauldron into which you drop your character in. Once he’s inside, it boils. But you don’t have your character simply jump out—you slam a lid on the cauldron and nail it shut so your character has to figure out how to survive the plot.

5 WAYS WRITERS CAN GET THE MOST OUT OF GOODREADS

If you’re like me, you have a Goodreads account and occasionally use it to update your list of books that you’ve read—but haven’t used it for much else. Goodreads Community Manager Patrick Brown offered up this guest post to me on how authors can use Goodreads to their benefit. I found the information very useful and informative, so I thought I’d share. Here it is:

5 Ways Writers Can Get the Most Out of Goodreads

As the head of the Author Program at Goodreads, I get to work every day with a variety of writers: bestselling authors such as Neil Gaiman, Maggie Stiefvater. Diana Gabaldon and Margaret Atwood, and new authors looking to unveil their long-nurtured book into the world. It’s a fantastic job and there’s nothing better than seeing readers get excited about their books.

The Goodreads Author Program is free and we currently have more than 48,000 authors in our program. Over the years, the same question has come up: “How can I get the most out of Goodreads?”

So, I thought about the authors who have been most successful on our platform and came up with five pieces of advice. If you follow them, you’ll be off to a strong start toward helping your book be discovered by the more than 10 million readers in the Goodreads community.

Patrick Brown serves as the Community Manager of Goodreads, the largest book recommendation website in the world. Prior to heading up the Goodreads online community, Brown was an independent bookseller at Book Soup and Vroman’s Bookstore. With an intense interest in group interaction online and a love for books, Patrick helps connect people with one another and with their passions. Currently Brown heads the Goodreads Author Program and Customer Care Team. He supports and cultivates one of the largest literary presences online by answering member questions and growing the Goodreads Community through social communication.

1. Use Goodreads to help build your platform.

Every author today needs a platform. By creating a Goodreads author profile, you actually get three major benefits. First, you become part of the Goodreads community, which allows readers to easily check out the latest information about you, see a photo of you, and browse which books you have written. And it allows readers to view the books you’ve read.

Second, you can sync your blog with your Goodreads profile. Not only does your blog help make your author profile more interesting, but there’s an added benefit to having your blog on Goodreads. Each week, we send an email to members with new blog posts from authors they like.

Third, you can promote events–simply add your events and invite your Goodreads friends to attend. Virtual events, like online discussions and book releases, are just as welcome as bookstore signings and author appearances.

Bonus Advice: One part of building your profile is making sure that your metadata is accurate and full. This point might sound a bit dry, but accurate metadata is absolutely essential for online discovery. Make sure that each of your books has the correct ISBN/ASIN, publication date, and cover image. Even something seemingly as trivial as page count is important. Many Goodreads members like to update their progress through the books they read—”I’m on page 231 of 540.” This translates to great news for you, the author, because when readers do this, their friends on the site often comment and discuss. Unless, of course, you didn’t enter the page count for your book.

2. Use giveaways to generate those all-important pre-release reviews.

By analyzing our data, we know that the number of reviews – regardless of whether they are good and bad – significantly impacts the amount of interest in a book. When a Goodreads member reviews a book, it automatically appears in the updates of all their friends on Goodreads, providing word-of-mouth marketing.

But how do you get those reviews? The pre-release giveaway is a very effective way to get your book read and reviewed. Each month, more than 1,500 titles are given away on Goodreads. But not all giveaways are created equal. To get the most bang for your pre-release buck, we recommend running multiple giveaways, each open for about a month. Your first giveaway should ideally start about three months pre-publication. Then, a few weeks before your book hits the shelves, run a second giveaway. This is what the publisher of the new Jess Walter book Beautiful Ruin did and the results have been tremendous. There is no limit to the number of giveaways you can run on Goodreads.

Bonus Advice: For some added attention, pair your giveaway with a self-serve advertisement. These inexpensive advertisements allow you to target your giveaway to precisely the right sort of reader for your book. You can target by comparable author or genre. Giveaways supported by ads attract roughly 56% more entries than giveaways without ads.

3. Make it easy for fans to write reviews.

If reviews are essential for discovery, it makes sense to encourage your readers to review your books on Goodreads. Your website likely already has Facebook and Twitter badges on it, but is there a Goodreads “G” on there, as well? Add a Goodreads badge and encourage people to leave a review of your book.

Bonus Advice: Reviews on Goodreads don’t just appear on Goodreads, they are also exported to many other sites, including Google Books, Powells.com, USAToday.com and more. So, a Goodreads review works harder for you than other reviews.

4. Join the discussion.

Goodreads is home to more than 20,000 book clubs and thousands more groups about nearly every topic imaginable. Find a few groups that interest you and join them. But here’s the tricky part: don’t talk about yourself as a writer initially. Use the group as a reader first. After you’ve been an active and enthusiastic member for a bit of time (we recommend at least a month), you can approach the moderator about hosting a discussion of your book. Popular groups like The Next Best Book Club, Romance Readers Reading Challenges, and The History Book Club regularly host chats with authors.

Bonus Advice: While it may be tempting to join the largest groups, you may be better off becoming a member of several smaller groups where you can get to know readers more easily. Always keep in mind with this tactic that you are essentially walking into a great party where everyone loves books. Who would you rather talk to? The person who will engage in a conversation with you about your interests and be genuinely interested in a broad range of topics before you then discover that they are an author? Or the person who walks up to you and says, “Hi, I’m an author and I’d like you to read my book”?

5. Be a reader!

Authors are, by nature, tremendous readers. Goodreads is first and foremost a site about sharing the love of books. Share yours by talking about what you read. Reviews and reading progress updates are two major sources of activity on the site. Members love seeing what authors are reading and if they have common favorite books.

Bonus Advice: If you’re not comfortable writing reviews, make an “inspirations” shelf and add the books that have meant the most to you as a writer. Not only will these books show up in your update feed for your fans to see, they will also make your profile a more engaging place for readers.

For more information about or to join the Author Program, please visit Goodreads Author Program.