# Style & Substance

Are we being noted to death by fear-stricken development execs who are too timid to put something up on screens that swings for the fences ... ?

... one kind of stakes towers above all the rest: the stakes of life-or-death.

Make no mistake, though. Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not essential. It very much is.

It might be the most clichéd of statements, but “if it’s not on the page, it’s not on the stage.”

Where Chu was truly brilliant as a director was in his innate understanding of the intimacy of film.

What happens if you protect your characters from anything bad that could ever happen to them?

The tough part when starting out is figuring out what kind of preparation will turn into luck when the right opportunity comes along.

Emotion is what makes stories memorable. It's the special sauce that makes viewers come back again and again.

He has a style all his own, one that captivates and entertains readers all across the world. No one else writes like he does ...

... if you've got an idea that you want to tackle but it feels like it's just "too insane" to pull off ... you might want to rethink that.

I’d bet on a variety show starring Taylor Swift versus sinking $200 million into another superhero saga any day of the week.

I’m willing to bet that if all of you made your heroes more like Forrest Gump, your scripts would be much better for it.

So many of you seem to be making the exact same mistakes with your writing. And from my vantage point, they're all easily fixable.

Shame is, in many ways, like that gun being held on a crowd. Everyone can relate.

Shows trying to tickle our funny bones have become so prolific that we have started to collectively yawn—it takes a lot more to stand out.