Jennie Evenson

Jennie Evenson is the author of "Shakespeare for Screenwriters" (Michael Wiese, 2013) as well as short fiction, essays, and a children's fantasy novel "Dalya & the Magic Ink Bottle" (Capstone, 2020). As a writer in LA, Evenson worked as a consultant for Netflix and developed ideas at production houses from DreamWorks to Focus Features. You can follow her on Twitter: @JM_Evenson

Posts by Jennie Evenson 48 results

What Are Your Characters Hiding?

You’ve got a secret. Don’t you? If you’re like most of us, you have a secret you don’t want anyone to know. Maybe you’re wearing mismatched socks, maybe you’re the lunchbox thief at work, or maybe you’re a hundred rats in a trench coat posing as a Brazilian spy. The point is: most of us know what it means to worry someone will find out our secret, leaving us vulnerable to rejection and shame.

September 9, 2019

Five Things To Know Before You Write for Kids

Writing for kids can be lucrative. Books, movies, graphic novels, cartoons, and television shows aimed at children make up a huge segment of the storytelling market. The stories can get paired with toys and other products, which increases revenue, and some kids ask to re-watch items they’ve already seen, which means even more revenue.

August 1, 2019

Self-Care While Writing the Great American Screenplay

Everyone knows writing can be stressful. Not a writer alive publicly proclaims “this is always extremely easy!” and lives to tell the tale, especially if they have murderously jealous writer friends. Art isn’t always simple and effortless. There are ups, downs, and a lot of quiet space in between which you can spend slowly breaking down and digesting your own mind. It can be challenging.

July 2, 2019

The Four Types of “Yes” in Hollywood and What They Actually Mean

Every writer dreams of the day when a producer reads their script and shouts out a jubilant “YES!” when asked if they like it. We all want to be an overnight success giving an awards speech thanking those people who have been nice to us and there are probably more than a few of us who want to name every single one of our enemies until the music starts at which point we will produce a megaphone from under our dress and continue.

June 25, 2019

Want To Grow As A Writer? Try These Things

Anyone reading this article is probably looking to grow as a writer. Growth is one of the hardest things to do as a creative person, but most people who have ‘made it’ in this business will tell you it is a necessary and never-ending process. There’s no one Promised Land of Perfection where everything you write will be easy and flawless. The best any writer can do is work hard and keep learning.

June 11, 2019

10 Must-Read Quotes From Famous Directors

Filmmaking how-to articles offer us fresh ideas and new methods for creating material. Anyone looking to grow as a filmmaker needs to be constantly working on growing as an artist.

June 3, 2019

5 Tips on Writing Opening Scenes

When we talk about screenwriting rules, Hollywood legend Frank Capra said it best: “There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.”

April 30, 2019

4 Things To Know Before Writing A Horror Movie

Horror movies and televisions shows are a perennial favorite among audiences. The storylines tap into our single most primal animal desire—to survive—and give us space to imagine how we would react if we were put into the same situation. But there’s more to horror than jump scares and music. It’s a complicated beast, as any director will tell you—and it’s not as easy as it may look.

April 1, 2019

5 Old School Ways To Write A Cult Classic

Everyone in Hollywood wants to write a cult classic. Who doesn’t want a crazed fandom going berserk over your movie and watching it obsessively while memorizing every single line and getting permanent tattoos on their arms in the shape of your main character’s face? That’s the dream, folks. Cult classics aren’t always the ones that garnered critical acclaim when they hit the theatres, but they’ve all found an extraordinary afterlife in the imagination of their viewers. If you’re one of those writers who dreams of writing a cult classic, let’s take a look at some of our favorites and see what makes them tick.

March 27, 2019

Crafting Your Protagonist: 4 Ways To Up Your Game

We all know that crafting a protagonist is one of the most important elements of storytelling. Whether you're writing film or television, you need to create a character compelling enough to reel audiences in and keep them watching. But what, exactly, can we do to up our game, in terms of creating a protagonist? What are some specific exercises we can do to improve our current and future protagonists?

October 24, 2018

5 Ways To Hook Your Audience

Producers, directors and actors read hundreds of screenplays every year. Chances are, unless you're a world-famous writer, they are reading quickly to find out if the story hooks them or not. Movie audiences make the same kinds of decisions when they choose something to watch. Are they going to stay nailed to their seats? Are they going to change the channel or switch off the television?

October 3, 2018

What Does ‘Write What You Know’ Mean, Anyway?

One of the most common pieces of writing advice is "write what you know," but how many of us truly know what it's like, say, to be chased by heavily-armed intergalactic space whales? Most of us regular-types shy away from extreme violence in our everyday lives, which makes writing action-packed movies tricky, if we are strictly sticking with what we "know."

September 24, 2018