The Gospel of Screenwriting

Jan 18

Hello, screenwriting world.

I’m Chris Moore (UCLA MFA). I’m a screenwriter, producer, and director with nearly 20 years in film, television, social media, and branded content. Quick clarification, I’m not the Chris Moore who produced Manchester by the Sea, Project Greenlight, or the American Pie series. Different Chris Moore, same love of movies.

I recently launched a 10-part audio screenwriting course, Screenwriting 101: How to Turn Your Idea Into a Screenplay. It’s built from core UCLA screenwriting fundamentals, plus two decades of real-world experience in the entertainment industry. My goal is simple: help you turn “That would make a great movie” into a professional-looking screenplay that holds up to a reader, an agent, a producer, or a studio exec.

These Gospel of Screenwriting posts are where I keep teaching in public.

I’ll share practical screenwriting tips, examples, and momentum tactics, including:
• screenplay structure (including three-act structure)
• outlining and writing a treatment before you draft
• screenplay formatting basics that make you look pro
• scene work, character wants, and raising stakes
• finishing strategies so your script doesn’t die in Act 2

This is The Gospel of Screenwriting.

Why I care about this craft:
I’ve been writing in one form or another since I was young, but the love of storytelling and the love of cinema collided in 1989 when I watched Dead Poets Society (written by Tom Schulman). I walked out of the theater changed. I remember thinking, I want to write movies, and I want them to make people feel like that.

Years later, I was in a corporate job that felt like a workplace comedy with none of the humor. On a rare vacation, my wife asked me a simple question: If you could do anything, what would you do? Without overthinking it, I said, “I want to write screenplays.”

That moment changed my life. It’s when screenwriting stopped being something other people did, and became something I could do. A few years later, I got accepted into the UCLA screenwriting program, and it reshaped the direction of my work for the next two decades.

Why cinematic storytelling matters
Storytelling is wired into us. Yuval Noah Harari calls it a human superpower, and he’s right. We don’t just trade facts. We make meaning through narrative, and we remember stories longer than we remember data.

Filmmaking takes that ancient instinct and turns it into something massive and collaborative. Look at any film set. Dozens, sometimes hundreds of people working toward one emotional result. And the entire process starts as an idea in the mind of a screenwriter.

That idea becomes words on a page. Then it becomes a living thing, shaped by actors, directors, cinematographers, editors, composers, and crews. When it’s done well, it reaches millions of people across cultures and generations. It can make you laugh, cry, rethink your life, or feel less alone.

Movies don’t just reflect culture. They help create it.

If you can quote “May the Force be with you,” or “You can’t handle the truth,” you already understand how screenplay dialogue becomes part of everyday life.

So here’s my invitation
If you’ve been carrying a movie in your head for years, I want you to stop waiting for permission. I made Screenwriting 101 to give you structure, tools, and forward motion. Not theory that lives in a book. A process that gets you to pages.

If you want to start, here are two good next steps: