CrimeTwenty-two films and TV episodes that use the serial killer as a lens for examining the world instead of as spectacle, from Silence of the Lambs to Mindhunter. What separates the serious from the exploitative, and what fiction writers can…
Fiction WritingTwenty films whose opening scenes deliver the story's essential argument before the plot requires it, from The Godfather's darkened study to No Country's elegiac voiceover. Six techniques every fiction writer can steal for their own first page.
AdaptationTwenty-five adaptations that kept what made the source worth adapting, from The Godfather's causal chain to Room's child narrator to Rebecca's absent title character. What each film preserved, and the one question every adapter must answer before they begin.
AdaptationTwenty adaptations that lost what made the source worth adapting, from I Am Legend's inverted ending to The Hobbit's inflated scale to The Golden Compass's defanged argument. What went wrong in each case, and the one question every adapter must…
BureaucracyTwenty films that build worlds you believe in before anyone explains them, from Blade Runner's environmental history to Princess Mononoke's moral complexity. Six core worldbuilding techniques drawn from the best in cinema, with craft lessons fiction writers can apply immediately.
Fiction WritingTwenty-one films that execute unreliable narration with real craft, from Rashomon's multiple self-serving accounts to Point Blank's possibly dead narrator. A complete taxonomy of eight distinct unreliability types, with specific craft lessons for fiction writers on how to build each…
Female FriendshipTwenty films that men watch seventeen times and women watch once, analyzed honestly for why each one connects so specifically with male audiences, why women are more ambivalent, and what writers can learn from films that speak with a specific…
Film ListTwenty-four war films beyond WWII, from Paths of Glory to All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), covering WWI, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars and the Civil War. These are the films that engage honestly with what war costs, not…
Cult ClassicTwenty-one films you cannot defend and cannot stop watching, from Flash Gordon to The Swinging Cheerleaders. The guilty pleasure gives you something better films don't. The guilt is about how you look enjoying it, not about anything the film does.…
Disney+Fifteen films where ideology, agenda, or message drove creative decisions that damaged the work, organized into three honest categories: Historical Fraud, Agenda Over Narrative, and Complicated Cases. Queen Cleopatra and The Little Mermaid are not the same kind of problem.…
Film ListTwenty-one films that demonstrate every way contemporary Hollywood goes wrong: franchise necromancy, prestige self-indulgence, IP strip-mining, and the Disney live action remake program that has been telling audiences their money is welcome and their taste is not. With craft notes…
Character DevelopmentTwenty films chosen not for being the best but for being the most instructive, each one demonstrating a specific craft technique with enough clarity that a fiction writer can extract the lesson and apply it immediately. From Chinatown's tragic structure…
Professional ghostwriting for executives, founders, coaches, and authors who want to get the book done right. 113+ books authored. 54+ ghostwritten for clients.
Ready to discuss your book?
BOOK YOUR PRIVATE CONSULTATIONNo pitch. No pressure.
© 2026 Richard Lowe. The Writing King. All rights reserved.
