Writing the Slow-Burn Payoff — Arguably one of the best moments in Gilmore Girls history is one of the final moments of the Season 4 finale, “Recipes and Raincoats” (S4E22) when Luke and Lorelai finally — finally! — kiss. It’s a scene worth watching and rewatching (both for the AWWWW! …

There’s a Good Reason. They’re Not Stupid. — Several years ago, a writer friend expressed frustration that people in Utah always spelled her last name wrong. She lives in California, where, I believe, her husband is from. She interacted with Utahns a lot because the state has a weirdly large writing community considering its population, and that means…

Misdirection: Make Your Readers So Curious They Have to Keep Reading — Stars Hollow has tension from the moment Luke’s nephew Jess arrives. He’s a city kid thrown into a small town with nothing to do, no one he knows, and plenty of trouble to make. At least, that’s largely how the townsfolk see him, and he seeing as he doesn’t particularly…

Here’s why the flashback episode of Gilmore Girls is SO good. — One of the classic signs of a beginning writer is shoving flashbacks into the first chapter (and/or the second and/or third chapter . . .) as a way to get the reader up to speed on the backstory, characters, world, etc. Don’t. Just . . . don’t. Sure, I’m sure you can find exceptions to the…

When the Netflix revival aired in 2016, a lot of story threads picked up where they’d left off, stuff Amy Sherman-Palladino always wanted for her characters. One of those things: turning Rory into the writer she always should have been instead of a journalist. The original series has plenty of…

Yes, Virginia, Humor Can Be Learned — I know a writer who insists that people are either funny or they’re not. Humor, they insist, cannot be taught. Oh, but humor can be taught. Humor can be improved and worked on — and likely will need to be worked on, just as any standup comic can attest. I’m living proof that humor can be taught. No…

It’s common knowledge that Gilmore Girls had rather unusual scripts. They were much longer than is typical for other shows of the same length, for starters, which means tons more dialogue. They also include super long camera shots, with fewer cutaways for reactions and the like, which means the actors…

It’s super easy to think that every section of a story is a scene, but that’s not technically the case. — In Gina’s most excellent piece from earlier this week, she wrote about a what’s one of the most helpful pieces of advice in structure a scene: “Yes, but . . . No, And . . .” …

Sometimes Showing Can Be Too Much of a Good Thing What details should a story include? How far back do we go? What about flashbacks? If we’re giving all the details and emotions and reactions and everything else, we risk our work turning into a boring slog Yes, You Can Show Too Much I see this a ton in beginning clients’ work: they tell us something…