We asked Liz Lisle, producer, dramaturg, and playwright, for her thoughts on sparking up a scene. Take it away, Liz!

Banging your head against the door of the refrigerator because your scene just won’t come together? Here are some quick and dirty ways to get your characters moving, your plot dancing, and your imagination playing the fiddle like it’s a hot summer night.

1. Add a character that speaks differently. Put someone in the scene that uses words in a distinctly different manner than the other characters. As soon as language becomes a focus, there are lots of interesting questions on the table about who, why, and what. As the playwright, you then get to spend time deciding if these are questions you want to answer now or later, if at all. A great way to create a dynamic in a scene is to create mystery around what is common knowledge and what is not.

We ask Daniel Heath, an award-winning playwright, for his ideas on minor characters. Take it away Daniel!

Writer's block is not a metaphysical condition. Writer's block just means there's something wrong with your story: either your plot is lousy, or your main characters aren't up to snuff, or the characters don't fit the plot, or all of the above. Recognizing this is not especially helpful, however. It's like saying, "The thing you did wrong on your math test was that you suck at math."

So, what do we do? And I say 'we,' because believe me, I've run more stories off the rails than I can count. But the Frenzy is underway, and we have neither the time nor the artistic temperament to go back to the beginning and make sure the tracks are straight. So, how do we get this thing moving again?

Think small.

Minor character can make a major difference.

We asked Will Bigham, winner of On The Lot, for his thoughts on writing a winning short. Take it away, Will!

Writing is writing, whether your script is 5 pages or 205 pages (please don't let it be 205 pages). Everything you know about character, structure, tone and format in regards to writing a feature, the same rules apply when writing a short. The only difference is SCOPE. Here are a few quick tips for those of you who have a story to tell and only a few minutes to tell it.

1. Keep it simple. If you have an idea that takes place in ancient Rome, where the newly appointed Caesar must win favor of the Senate, while his sister is courting the son

Around the world the clock is striking midnight and the Frenzy is beginning! As we start Script Frenzy 2008 we turned again to award-winning writer Nicholas Turner for advice on the best way to start a script. Take it away, Nick!

The best scripts feel both original and familiar at the same time—no easy feat. Even more challenging: being able to capture that tone within the first few pages. Your script only gets one first impression, and if it doesn’t hook a reader immediately, its next stop may be the landfill.

That doesn’t mean the beginning needs explosions and car chases—or that it even has to be particularly fast-paced. What it should do is introduce a bit of mystery.

It is funny, but no matter how far along you get in your career as a writer, you are constantly looking for the “secret” or that one piece of advice that will solve all your problems. I say this, because I have been supporting myself solely as a writer for the past ten years, and I am endlessly looking for advice! I often find it in the form of screenwriting books or friends, but know that even if you are a “professional” you often look to others to see if you are on the right path. I think this is so because every script is different, but there is always ONE problem with it. I can’t tell you what that is, because that ONE problem always changes.

So, I thought I would give you, dear aspiring writers, the

Now that the WGA writers strike is over, many writers are gearing up to meet the 100-page Script Frenzy quota by writing two TV pilots in a month. We asked Los Angeles-based TV writer Jonathan Abrahams to lay out the Top Five plot questions pilot writers should ask themselves before the writing begins.

First of all, let me say to those who have decided to take this on: You’re out of your minds. It takes most professional TV writers a month at the very least just to write one 60-minute original pilot, and many more weeks of planning and researching and taking notes and obsessing before that. But that’s because most of us live in fear: Fear that our imagination has dried up, that our agents are apathetic,

As we near our final days of scriptwriting, one question remains: How will it all end? Since we love surprises, we asked award-winning writer Nicholas Turner to share some of the most famous twist endings around. Nick's stage plays have been performed in Washington, Chicago, San Diego, and San Francisco and he has sold three screenplays—one of which, Fissure is in post-production. Take it away, Nick!

Ending a story with a satisfying twist is one of the most challenging tasks in scriptwriting. Not because it’s hard to surprise your audience—that’s easy. Just kill off your main character, or have him turn into a hippopotamus. The reason twist endings are hard is because they have to be a surprise without being a surprise.

The best compliment a writer can get isn’t: “I never saw that ending coming.” It’s: “I can’t believe I didn’t see that coming—it was so obvious.” In order for a twist to be

Whether you’re writing a rom-com, a fantasy, or a horror flick, nearly every script can benefit from more levity. So we asked Fred Rubin, veteran writer/producer of such TV classics as “Different Strokes," “Mama’s Family," “Family Matters,” and “Night Court,” to share his side-splitting secrets. Besides writing dozens of sitcom episodes, pilots, and TV movies, Fred teaches at the UCLA film school and spends a great deal of time punching up scripts for other writers. Take it away, Fred!

Learning to be funny is one of the most difficult writing skills to master. Most everyone is born with the sensibilities to be scared, confused, serious, moody, frustrated, conflicted, and angry—all elements that contribute to great writing. But “funny?” Well, if it’s not in your environment as you grow up, it’s often not on hand when you create. Still, I believe anyone who at least possesses a sense of humor, anyone who likes jokes and

Is your story stuck or running out of juice? We asked screenwriter David Warfield to share his top-secret weapon against flagging momentum: the Set Piece. With over 20 years of Hollywood experience, David has sold screenplays to MGM, written for Warner Bros., and analyzed countless scripts via his story consulting website, storysolver.com. Take it away, David!

Most of us find at some point, despite all our careful plotting and well-developed character motivations, that some section of the script (usually in Act II) feels flat. We sense the audience will perceive the trajectory of the story too easily and we’re waiting patiently (or not so patiently) for

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!

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:

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