A guest post by Trevor Mayes of ScriptWrecked.
Hallowed or Hackneyed?
When it comes to mainstream Hollywood story structure, there tends to be two schools of thought.
1) Hallowed — “There is a mystical reason we humans respond to the same basic story told over and over again.”
2) Hackneyed — “Movies have become far too formulaic, with their clichéd heroes journeys and fill-in-the-blanks beat sheets.”
Both are slightly off.
The Simple Truth
It all boils down to presentation and maximum impact.
Whether it’s a movie, 30 second commercial, blog post, or office gossip — an effective storyteller will …

One of the reasons why I started blogging here at scriptxray.com is because I found blogging was a great way to meet my own goals as a writer — at the time,I subscribed to the thousand words a day quota.
Though I’ve moved on from that quota (I usually write well over 1,000 words a day now), I still feel blogging is a great way for any type of writer, whether you’re a screenwriter, novelist, journalist, or poet, to continue to write every day … even when things aren’t going too well in your …

With the success of the Apple App Store and iPhone, along with the introduction of the iPad last week, the screenwriting community can’t help but wonder when the first screenwriting app for the iPad will be released — and further more, who will release it.
Let’s face it — the screenwriting apps available for the smaller devices are kinda’ silly. It would take hours to compose a compelling sequence simply due to the size of the screen and keyboard.
Unlike the screen of the iPhone, the iPad sports a 9.7 inch screen and …

During the past few months the scriptxray team has been busy with two major projects — building the xTeam and revamping the website.
So far, we’ve received well over 500 resumes from story analysts around the world and attracted a lot of feedback from screenwriters interested in our services provided — if interested in this, check back soon for updates regarding the xTeam and services available.
The revamp project is well underway and as you can see, we’re making progress!
Here’s what’s new!
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This has been updated to include all the screenplay evaluation …

As most of you already know, Blake Snyder provided the screenwriting community with one of the most influential, non-fiction books of all time.

Why so influential?
Not only did Blake Snyder make the, oh so famous, “Blake Snyder Beat Sheet,” he also dedicated the entire book to breaking down the outlining process for screenwriters. I don’t know about everyone else, but for me personally, this was one area that always seemed to be skimmed over with other books on screenwriting.
What’s the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet?
The beat sheet in general is a shorthand …