ABSTRACT
Since the day you thought about writing screenplays, you’ve no doubt been told that they must have confl ict. As I’ve said, this is only half true — connection is equally important. And this advice about confl ict is not very helpful if you’re trying to learn the craft of screenwriting. It gets you obsessing about the wrong thing. You begin to think that confl ict is some secret ingredient in a screenwriter’s potion — the dramatist’s eye of newt — and you wonder where the heck you can fi nd some to throw in your script. But you don’t fi nd confl ict, you create it.
