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"Amara was angry" tells. "Amara set the teacup down so hard it cracked" shows. Show the moments that matter; tell to move quickly through time. A story that shows everything is exhausting; one that tells everything is lifeless.

Africa's storytelling superpower. Rhythm, repetition, proverbs, call-and-response, the narrator who speaks straight to the listener — techniques from griots and fireside tales that modern bestsellers borrow. Don't flatten your English to sound "international"; the texture of how your people speak is a feature, not a flaw.

Short chapters pull readers forward — end them on a question, a decision or a door opening. Vary sentence length: short sentences hit hard. Long ones let the reader breathe, look around, settle into a place before something happens.

Real speech interrupts, dodges and leaves things unsaid. Cut greetings and small talk unless they carry tension. Sprinkle mother-tongue words where they carry meaning — context makes them clear without translation.

A thriller promises dread and speed; a self-help book promises a warm, confident guide; a comedy promises mischief. Pick your tone in chapter one and keep the promise to the end.

A novel goes inside heads; a screenplay can only show what a camera sees and a microphone hears. "She remembered her father's warning" doesn't film — turn thoughts into actions, images and dialogue. Screenplays are also lean: ~90–120 pages, one page ≈ one minute of screen time.

Act 1 (setup): ordinary world, then an event that changes everything. Act 2 (confrontation): rising obstacles, a midpoint twist, the lowest moment. Act 3 (resolution): final battle — literal or emotional — and a changed hero. TV episodes compress the same shape and end on a hook for the next episode.

One sentence: hero + goal + obstacle + stakes. "A Harare street vendor who witnesses a political murder must smuggle the evidence across the border before the election — with the killers one step behind." Producers read the logline before anything else; sharpen it until it sells the whole film.

Own a story people love? Write a 1–2 page treatment (the story in present tense), then a pilot or feature spec script. Cut subplots, merge characters, and give internal journeys external symbols. Register your work before pitching, and never sign away rights without reading the option terms.

Free screenwriting software: WriterSolo, Trelby, KIT Scenarist — all handle industry format. Africa's screen industries are hungry for scripts: Nollywood (Nigeria) is one of the world's largest film industries by volume, with fast-growing streamers commissioning African originals. Enter local script competitions and film-lab calls — they're the front door.