Essays on the Craft of Dramatic Writing!

A fourth edition of my writing workbook, A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling, is now available for $2.99 from Amazon Kindle.

This new edition offers new, unique tools for creating vibrant story characters and recognizing some of the main flawed character types in novels: characters who are emotionally numb, stuck, or too wounded to act.

If you've ever been told your minor characters are more interesting than your main character, this workbook will give you the tools you need to transform your writing.

If you've found value on this site, please buy the book for yourself or as a gift for another writer.

The book is available on several other e-book formats--including Nook, Kobo, and Sony, and Smashwords. Smashwords has an affiliate program for those interested in earning a commission by selling my book.

A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling is also available as a trade paperback from Amazon.

Follow @bjscript on Twitter

Presentations and Workshops

I'm teaching a screenwriting workshop through PCC that begins January 23rd, and I'm doing a presentation for Christina Katz' Northwest Author Series on February 26th.

This site offers writers of all levels and genres new ideas on the essential elements of storytelling:

creating dynamic characters...

identifying what's at stake in
a story...

and ensuring that both the plot and story lines converge into an emotionally fulfilling resolution.

Reviews of popular novels, plays, and screenplays highlight those aspects of storytelling essential for fulfilling a writer's promise to the reader.

The essays on this web site are part of my exploration of what it is to both tell and enjoy a story. I welcome everyone who shares that journey.
--Bill Johnson

What's new:

Question, Answer, Question
This essay reviews the preface to Twilight, the popular novel by Stephenie Meyer. The process of engaging the attention of readers that I call question, answer, question is explored. I speak about this process on this video posted on YouTube.

Writing a Novel With a Stuck Main Character, Notes on The Kite Runner
An essay about how a popular novel was written with an emotionally stuck main character.

About the Author:

A photo of Bill Johnson, author of A Story is a Promise and the Spirit of Storytelling.

Vita
Film Scripts
Q/A
Site awards

All material on this web site Copyright 1998-2012 Bill Johnson; all rights reserved. I welcome your comments and suggestions. If you have any questions about the story issues raised by my essays, for a response, write me at bjscript at teleport.com.
Thanks for visiting this site.

SCRIPT SERVICES
I review screenplays and novel manuscripts. I will review the opening 50 pages of a novel manuscript (12 point Courier, double spaced) for $50 and include a phone chat. Email me at bjscript at teleport.com for details.

I also review screenplays for House of Lit, a company that provides offers e-book creation.

BOOK REVIEWS
Capsule reviews of popular books on writing, and books by students who have studied the a story is a promise concept, and others who asked me to review their novel manuscripts, including Mark Ellis' Ladder Memory, M Thomas Cooper's 42, Shannon Capps' Salmon Run, Snip, by Doc Macomber, Betty Grant Henshaw's Children of the Dust, Steve Brody's The New Commandments and Dr. Philip Shapiro's Healing Power: Ten Steps to Pain Managment and Spiritual Evolution. My student Helen Chin's Jin-Ling's Two Left Feet is available from Amazon.

Years ago I helped Brendan Foley with a screenplay, Under the Wire, about WWII escape artist Bill Ash. It's now a popular, successful novel available on Amazon.