Personal posts, essays, and interviews by Black writers, bloggers, and thinkers, compiled by our editorial team.

via On Injustice, Inequality, and Being Black in America: A Reading List — Discover

Without appointments and concerts, without events and other things that remind me of the date, I find myself looking at the calendar more often, trying to fix in my mind a place to lodge myself in the stream of time. Is it Sunday or maybe Monday? But to be honest, the calendar that seems more […]

via Pandemic Time — Vertigo

Poetry can often channel grief, pain, solidarity, and resistance in ways that everyday language can’t.

via Black Lives Matter: Six Poems — Discover

“Making space for another viewpoint does not negate yours. Quite the opposite — it provides more context and framework for your own experience.” (Kiara Goodwin, The Everygirl)

via What I Hear When Someone Says “I Don’t See Color” — Discover

Film Courage: What is the difference between a professional level script and one that is written by an amateur? Mark Sanderson, Screenwriter/Author: A professional level script I would say can compete in the professional marketplace where someone could receive a screenplay, read it and not go Hmm, this has too many problems that this person […]

via A Professional Script Vs. An Amateur Script - Mark Sanderson — FilmCourage.com

Film Courage: For a new screenwriter who has just finished a first screenplay, what do they do with it? Markus Redmond, Actor/Writer/Director/Producer: I don’t know? [laughs]. Alright, so you are saying you write a screenplay, do you know nothing about nothing, right? You just wrote something? Okay…Internet! Internet! This is the connectivity of the world […]

via You Have To Work To Get Your Screenplay Read – Markus Redmond — FilmCourage.com

Film Courage: Aside from being scared of something, how do you know your protagonist is someone you want to write about, that you want to spend years working with? Kelli McNeil, Writer, Actress and Voice Over Artist: This has happened to me on a couple of occasions but eventually my character starts speaking to me. […]

via Is It Common For A Writer To Have Their Characters Talk Back To Them? – Kelli McNeil — FilmCourage.com

Film Courage: What do you think makes a great director? Bruce Logan, Writer/Director/Cinematographer: Well for the longest time I was trying to discern what that was because if you go on the kind of sets I like where you see everybody working and you know the AD is shouting out all of the instructions and […]

via What Makes A Great Movie Director? — Bruce Logan — FilmCourage.com

Film Courage: What is the formula for writing a bad story? Travis Seppala, Screenwriter/Author: I feel like there are many ways a story could go bad. *Not picking the right character to be the lead. I’ve definitely read scripts where the lead character is much less interesting than a secondary character in the script. It’s […]

via Formula For Writing A Bad Story – Travis Seppala — FilmCourage.com

Film Courage: What suggestions do you have for screenwriters on developing a character? Evan Kidd, Filmmaker/Podcaster: You need to know what your character needs to achieve in your broader story. You also need to think Okay, what would happen if I spent time with this character? I always think of it that way. Anytime I […]

via 4 Tips For Developing And Writing A Character - Evan Kidd — FilmCourage.com