A simple test that sharpens every scene

Try this to turbocharge your manuscript's can't-put-it-down quality

I recently turned in a screenplay, and the process of writing it taught me so much about shaping a narrative. Scripts are pared-down and spare, and putting one together feels, as one friend put it, more like playing with Legos than sculpting from clay.

Among the many resources I used to give myself an education in screenwriting, two stood out as exceptionally helpful…for scripts, yes, but for all forms of storytelling. One is the popular podcast Scriptnotes. The other is Tom Vaughn’s excellent (and free!) screenwriting newsletter. Subscribe to both!

Vaughn once shared a litmus test that completely changed how I write fiction, too: