The Pitch Master Newsletter Weekly craft and career fuel for screenwriters and novelists with creativity tips and storytelling tools We've talked about the legal rules around writing about real people and Hollywood's approach to true stories. This week we're talking about how to fictionalize true stories to protect yourself. Here’s how to tell your story without inviting a lawsuit. Avoid the Danger Zone Don’t write about real people with lightly changed names and give them made-up bad...
12 days ago • 2 min read
The Pitch Master Newsletter Weekly craft and career fuel for screenwriters and novelists with creativity tips and storytelling tools Last week we talked about the legal rules for writing about real people, including how to avoid defamation, slander, and libel. This week we're going to talk specifically about how movies and TV shows handle true stories. When Hollywood adapts a true story, producers typically acquire the life rights of the central figures because they want to dramatize private...
19 days ago • 5 min read
The Pitch Master Newsletter Weekly craft and career fuel for screenwriters and novelists with creativity tips and storytelling tools True stories are great fodder for novels and screenplays, but they also are legal landmines. There are rules when you are writing about real people. What do writers need to know about writing true stories to avoid being sued? Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. If you are writing a true story about living people, consult an attorney before publishing your book or...
26 days ago • 4 min read
The Pitch Master Newsletter Weekly craft and career fuel for screenwriters and novelists with creativity tips and storytelling tools The Shy Girl Controversy I don’t normally cover breaking news here, but the Shy Girl controversy is too important to pass up. It touches everything that matters right now for working writers and screenwriters: AI tools, mob mentality, publishing power dynamics, and what it really means to own your creative career. Buckle up. What Happened Shy Girl, a horror...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
The Pitch Master Newsletter Cause and Effect: The Story Chain Reaction A story is not just a string of things that happen. A story is a chain reaction. This happens, therefore that happens. A character makes a choice, therefore something changes. A secret is revealed, therefore a relationship blows up. A plan fails, therefore the hero has to try something riskier, scarier, or stupider. That is cause and effect. And when it is working, your story feels inevitable. It pulls the reader or viewer...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
The Pitch Master Newsletter The World’s Largest Library Is Hiding in Plain Sight (And Your Books and Screenplays Should Be In It) Imagine a library 100 times larger than the Library of Alexandria. A library with millions of books in every language, stretching back centuries. A library where a reader can search almost any topic and instantly discover a book about it. Cool! That library exists. It’s called Google Books. And if you’re an author or screenwriter, it may be one of the most powerful...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
The Pitch Master Newsletter Nothing yanks me out of a story faster than a plot hole. If they’re really stupid, I get mad. And I quit reading or watching. That disconnect doesn’t just “break immersion”, it breaks trust, and it quietly murders your relationship with your reader/viewer. Plot holes can happen anywhere, but they’re most common in mysteries, thrillers, and action stories, where the engine of the story is cause-and-effect. At their core, plot holes are logic problems with motives,...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
The Pitch Master Newsletter How to make sure AI can find and recommend you, your novel, or screenplay. In the last few months, you may have noticed that internet search has changed. Now when you Google something, Gemini, Google’s AI, answers your question in a paragraph, giving you links if you want to read further. Many people have stopped Googling altogether, starting their search with their favorite AI tool. This shift is why writers need a new internet visibility strategy – GSO. What is...
2 months ago • 3 min read
The Pitch Master Newsletter Let’s Talk about the AI Disruption Using or even talking about AI freaks a lot of creatives out. It’s time to get real. The genie is out of the bottle. Things are not going back to Peak TV of 2017 or the movie theaters of 1993. Ever since 1904, when fiction films became popular with audiences, entertainment has been evolving with technology. Movies did not kill live theater, and they survived the arrival of television. Movies made by and starring humans will not go...
3 months ago • 4 min read