What goes into writing a great movie script?
Last Updated: 02.07.2025 09:47
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.
All rules are made to be broken, but you damn well better know WHY you’re breaking them.
Learn to tell a story orally and not through writing. Try telling your story to a friend.
Be a super-ager — and join the ‘wellderly’ - The Times
Your primary job is to create situations. Modern actors will fuck up your dialogue, despite whatever your contract says.
Primary characters must change polarities. Secondary characters can change less.
Research the facts and then throw away the research.
Adventure Calls from the Lost City of Un’Goro, Hearthstone’s Next Expansion - Blizzard Entertainment
Conflict is your power source; without it you have no drama and hence no script.
What you leave unwritten is as important as what you write. SUBTEXT.
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.
Physicists Unveil New Quantum Super Material That Could Revolutionize Electronics - SciTechDaily
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.
Only God gets it right the first time. Rewrite everything.
Leave holes. Write and unwrite. Put it in, take it out.
1-In-100,000 Chance Earth Could Be Yeeted Out Of The Solar System By A Passing Star - IFLScience
Audiences are smarter than you think. Something about turning down the house lights makes their IQs go up.
Maintain a slush pile/idea file. When you are ready to write, choose the best seeds to plant.
The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.
Security Camera Footage Reveals How Dog Puts Away His Toys After Playing - AOL.com
A scene should change valence from beginning to end. Up to down, down to up.
Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.
A critical function of storytelling is wish fulfillment. This is why video games are so popular. “That protagonist is JUST LIKE ME.”
Use status to help drive conflict. King Lear/fool. Upstairs/downstairs.
To develop a unique voice for each character, try interviewing your characters.
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.
'Club World Ca$h Grab': Players don protest shirts at pregame - Sounder at Heart
Write in reverse time. Major characters need to change polarity; minor characters may remain the same at the end.
Actors give better feedback than writers do.
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.
Why do I sweat so much after applying moisture or sun screen on my face? I have normal skin.