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Jurgen Wolff

London most of the time, Southern California some of the time

Interests: Books, theatre, films, drawing and painting, cartooning, animation, conversation, travel, photography, fitness, marketing, graphic design.

Recent Activity

Watch our for scams that target aspiring screenwriters

Writers tend to be hopeful souls eager to get our work seen, which also makes us vulnerable to scammers or people selling services unlikely to help you sell your script. Here are a few things to consider. SCREENWRITING CONTESTS If... Continue reading

Posted 6 days ago at Time to Write

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Your weakness can become your strength

What if your weakness could also be your strength? In the previous post, I wrote about Dana Terrace, who persisted with an idea for a TV series that her colleague called dumb. The Owl House was renewed for a second... Continue reading

Posted Jan 11, 2020 at Time to Write

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Don't give up on your dumb idea

Dana Terrace had an idea for an animated magical comedy-horror TV series. She told the LA Times, "I was working with someone at that time who kept discouraging me from working on it." Her colleague called it a dumb idea.... Continue reading

Posted Jan 11, 2020 at Time to Write

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A Thought about achievement for the New Year--or anytime

"Most daily tasks, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules." - Anthony Trollope I'm no Hercules, but my tasks have been rather spasmodic for a while! Let's see if I can change that in... Continue reading

Posted Dec 27, 2019 at Time to Write

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Can You Learn to Write Funny?

An old friend who teaches at a performing arts school recently asked me to look at a script for a short film, written by one of his students, that they are planning to film. It's the story of a young... Continue reading

Posted Nov 17, 2019 at Time to Write

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The best opening for your screenplay or novel

I just read an article about Stephen King's new book, The Institute. The person who wrote the article admires King's novels but in this one he got to chapter 7 and there was still no story. The Amazon blurb for... Continue reading

Posted Oct 17, 2019 at Time to Write

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Write Like Nobody's Watching

Actually, nobody IS watching. So for your first draft, feel free to be as clumsy, daring, or crazy as you like. Put it aside for a while. Then look at it. What were you thinking!? That's TOO crazy! Or it... Continue reading

Posted Oct 11, 2019 at Time to Write

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Bad writing advice from the web

The web is full of good advice. It's also full of bad advice. Here's some bad screenwriting advice: "Quite frankly, Hollywood people don't like to read; the first time they see so much as a simple metaphor in your scene... Continue reading

Posted Oct 6, 2019 at Time to Write

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What you CAN'T learn from others

The internet is full of tips on how to learn from [name of successful person]. The implication is that if you just do things their way, you'll have their success. Usually, these tips are too general to be useful. Things... Continue reading

Posted Oct 5, 2019 at Time to Write

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Brainstorming Strategies: What would (X) do?

One of my favorite brainstorming strategies is imagining how another person might solve the problem or approach the task. I'll give you a personal example. I'm thinking of writing a film or play about how political polarization affects a family,... Continue reading

Posted Oct 4, 2019 at Time to Write

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The Power of Deadlines

Sometimes when I'm supposed to be doing something, I find I'm drawn to doing something else--usually something easier and less important. Entrepreneur and writer Peter Gasca discussed a similar problem in an interview on Inc.com: "I am mostly too organized,... Continue reading

Posted Sep 29, 2019 at Time to Write

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The man with 21,000 rejections

A man who's collected 21,000 rejections? What a loser, right? Nope, very, very wrong. Jacob M. Appel is a doctor, lawyer, bioethicist, author, professor, and tour guide. He has seven master's degrees, a JD from Harvard Law School, an MD,... Continue reading

Posted Sep 26, 2019 at Time to Write

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Writing Excuses Demolished: "I don't know if my idea is good enough."

Some people never get around to writing because they don't know whether their idea is good enough to succeed in the marketplace. Welcome to the club! Every book, poem, short story, and screenplay is a gamble. Even the top publishers... Continue reading

Posted Sep 25, 2019 at Time to Write

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Writing excuses demolished: "I can't decide what to write."

An excuse that sometimes comes up for not writing is that you have so many ideas and you can't decide which one to write. First, congratulations on having a lot of ideas! There are two main criteria for deciding which... Continue reading

Posted Sep 23, 2019 at Time to Write

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Writing Excuses Demolished: "I don't have time."

One of the most common reasons that comes up when people say they want to write but they aren't is "I don't have time." Really? Do you watch TV, go to the movies, use social media? I’m not saying you... Continue reading

Posted Sep 20, 2019 at Time to Write

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The Least Compelling Movie Logline I've Ever Read

The logline for a film is supposed to get you interested in seeing the movie. Today I saw the least compelling one ever: Raindance Festival: "Egor, a fearless state forest guard living in the Siberian Taiga, lives a happy life... Continue reading

Posted Sep 19, 2019 at Time to Write

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I'm an info addict. Are you?

Science proved what we probably suspected all along: you can get addicted to information in the same way you can get addicted to junk food. ScienceDaily reports: "A new study by researchers at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business has... Continue reading

Posted Jun 25, 2019 at Time to Write

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The Writing Payoff You May Not Be Expecting

We tend to think the payoff for writing a book is getting it into the hands of readers, and the payoff for writing screenplays is seeing your work on a screen, small or large. That's not wrong, especially if you're... Continue reading

Posted Jun 24, 2019 at Time to Write

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The scourge of dishonest writing

When I was a student of Danny Simon (Neil's brother and a very successful TV writer) one of his maxims was, "Don't go for the joke!" This may seem like strange advice from a comedy writer, but what he meant... Continue reading

Posted Jun 23, 2019 at Time to Write

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You DO have time to write!

There’s no question about it, even though technology was supposed to make life easier and give us more time, the demands on us are escalating. Making the time to do something that is important to you, like writing the screenplay... Continue reading

Posted Jun 20, 2019 at Time to Write

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Writers (and others): Watch your language!

On your road to success as a screenwriter, you’re going to have to convince a lot of people that what you’re doing is worthwhile. The same is true for almost any other profession. If you're a screenwriter, how you speak... Continue reading

Posted Jun 17, 2019 at Time to Write

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Sneaky hybrid movie: Rolling Thunder's little white lies

Martin Scorses's film of a Bob Dylan concert, "Rolling Thunder Revue," looks like a typical music documentary, but as Indiewire points out, it's not. Fictional characters are mixed in with real people in order to provide context...and also just for... Continue reading

Posted Jun 14, 2019 at Time to Write

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Can you tell your screenplay story in six words?

Screenwriter Scott Meyers suggests boiling the story of your screenplay down into six words. If you can't do that, he says, you don't have a story. Sometimes I really resist the idea that everything should be simple, but he has... Continue reading

Posted Jun 10, 2019 at Time to Write

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Screenwriters (and others): Reject Rejection!

Getting rejected is a normal part of every screenwriter's life but it can make it difficult to stay motivated. Fortunately, cognitive therapy offers a lot of useful tools for making sure we don't let rejection affect us negatively. Here are... Continue reading

Posted Jun 9, 2019 at Time to Write

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Does truth matter in inspirational stories?

I received an email today that featured an inspiration story: A marine biologist puts a shark in a big tank with smaller fish. The shark eats the fish. Then the marine biologist puts a plexiglass barrier between the shark and... Continue reading

Posted Jun 8, 2019 at Time to Write

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