When I was a kid I wanted to be a stuntman. Blame it on too many hours sitting too close to the television watching too many episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man. Swept up in the excitement of a wry handsome hero kicking ass and taking names, I too longed to be a savior of men, women and children and make the world safe for democracy. So I practiced. Flipping over cars, jumping off cliffs, motor-crossing bikes and skating halfpipes, just to prove I could. As a result, I broke my jaw, wrist, arm, finger, toe, rib, foot, knee, and collar bone… and was sewn up with enough stitches to make a quilt that would cover Kansas. There’s got to be a better way I thought. And so I took to writing, which enabled me to live vicariously through the actions of heroes. Now I could be a cop, an FBI agent, a CIA operative, a Green Beret. Basically, anything I wanted to be. Anytime. Anywhere. And I didn’t break a sweat. Or a leg.
Soon I discovered that others liked my action writing and would hire me to write action movies… at Paramount, DreamWorks, Disney, Universal, Fox and more. Not only was I not getting hurt, but I was getting paid. After some hits and misses on the Hollywood rollercoaster, I returned home to the green trees and blue skies of Atlanta for an easier-peasier life. With film and television on the upswing here, people everywhere suggested I teach what I had learned to help others tell their tales. I was surprised to find doing so was nearly as rewarding as writing them myself. So I took to lecturing at Emory University, University of North Georgia, Reinhardt University and in my own workshops at Screenwriter School. Soon I was inspiring hundreds of writers to tell their own stories to make the world safe for democracy. Eventually one student said I should write a book sharing what I knew. Then someone else said it. Then a whole slew of people. But like all good action heroes, I was slow to change. But eventually, I acquiesced.
Crash! Boom! Bang! How to Write Action Movies is my first book on screenwriting. It packs in every lesson I could squeeze into a 150 pages. Even if you’re not an action scribe, you’ll still get a lot of it. Because I put a lot into it. Published by the renown MWP (www.mwp.com), it will be available June 1st in Barnes & Nobles across the globe. But you can order one now at a discount from Amazon here, if you wish: https://goo.gl/qxO7qO.
I hope you enjoy it.
That you learn something. About movies, writing, yourself.
And that it keeps you from breaking any bones.
Michael