What goes into writing a great movie script?

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

Conflict is your power source; without it you have no drama and hence no script.

Outline everything. Use story beats. Keep character’s mouths taped up, until they absolutely MUST speak. Write the script and the dialogue at the last minute, after you’ve revised the hell out of the outline.

What items do restaurant customers commonly try to steal?

Learn to tell a story orally and not through writing. Try telling your story to a friend.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Don’t direct from the page. Everyone, from the director on down, wants to be part of the process of making movies. Let them do their work.

Aut dolorem voluptates tempore maxime.

Leave holes. Write and unwrite. Put it in, take it out.

Primary characters must change polarities. Secondary characters can change less.

To develop a unique voice for each character, try interviewing your characters.

Let’s say you have 3 separate manuscripts and send 1 of them to 12 different agents (4 read same copy). Now let’s say 2 agents each liked separate manuscripts and want to move forward. What would you do as far as transparency and negotiation?

Only God gets it right the first time. Rewrite everything.

Write in reverse time. Major characters need to change polarity; minor characters may remain the same at the end.

Your primary job is to create situations. Modern actors will fuck up your dialogue, despite whatever your contract says.

Why does everyone hate Ed Sheeran so much?

Get up there yourself. Be in a movie. Take some acting (not writing) classes. Learn how a trained actor approaches a text. Learn why actors take roles. They do as much if not more than the writer does.

People choose what to see based on the high concept. Make sure to deliver an ending consistent with the high concept -- it is what the audience paid for.

A critical function of storytelling is wish fulfillment. This is why video games are so popular. “That protagonist is JUST LIKE ME.”

Were there any friendly fire incidents involving American submarines, aircraft carriers, or battleships during World War II or World War I?

Cut everything that is not a payoff, or a setup for a specific payoff. “Omit needless words.” Think about the sparseness of joke telling, or Grimm Brothers.

All rules are made to be broken, but you damn well better know WHY you’re breaking them.

Maintain a slush pile/idea file. When you are ready to write, choose the best seeds to plant.

Satellite streaks block out the Arctic sky photo of the day for June 20, 2025 - Space

Use status to help drive conflict. King Lear/fool. Upstairs/downstairs.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

What you leave unwritten is as important as what you write. SUBTEXT.

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Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

A scene should change valence from beginning to end. Up to down, down to up.

Audiences are smarter than you think. Something about turning down the house lights makes their IQs go up.

What makes certain audiobook narrators so much better than others?