# Read

While few characters will hold appeal for every audience member, John Bucher shares approaches to flawed characters that decrease the chances of alienating your audience in the process.

If we reflect back on what we’ve done in the past and how we’ve overcome it, facing the same challenge in the future will be just that much easier.

"We always tell people to be authentic. That’s one of the biggest things that helped us connect with people ..."

"I just want to put stuff out there that reminds people how we are not only interconnected, but we're codependent. And we won't accept that, like we actually kind of all need each other." - Kemp Powers

I knew your mother, she says and your ancestors all the way back, and she shudders remembering what came before.

Festival directors and programmers are just as passionate and dedicated to films as the filmmakers themselves. But filmmakers primarily regard them as key gatekeepers in the journey of seeking and building an audience.

The danger of the shame I felt is that it caused a paralysis that hindered me from forward motion in every aspect of my life, not just writing.

If a screenwriter thinks that there’s little to learn from the niche because they’re writing a horror film or a thriller, they’re (ahem) way off-key.

There’s not a single writer I know worth their professional bona fides who doesn’t get regular visits from The Dream Police. And no. It’s not because we’re snowflake whack-jobs wrecked in a constant state of low self-esteem.

When you take detailed notes on how episodes unfold, you notice the reason you like certain episodes more than others is that things don’t just happen for the sake of things happening.

The artist’s response to pain is to counteract it with beauty—an urge to affirm life even as we are drowning. Sometimes we make magic. Sometimes we get it wrong.

I can’t tell you the number of times I have been told by different teachers that I should keep the direction off the page. That I am just here to write the story. That never made sense to me.

I still find it baffling when I get into a heated discussion over a plot point or dialogue with my child.

"Much of my writing has centered on historical dramas, including a short film set in 1960s Appalachia and another in 1970s New York."

Film development is an (often) indeterminate phase of creation that is crammed in between the original spark of inspiration and getting the thing produced.