What goes into writing a great movie script?

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.

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.

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.

How do police officers feel about the fear they instill into criminals?

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

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

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

I’m running away I live in Indiana what states near by are safe I’m 12 no comments?

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

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

How long will it take Christian president-elect Donald J. Trump to restore our nation's moral values?

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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

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

How do you smoke heroin?

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

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.

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

What were your fantasies when you reached puberty?

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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

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

Why cant I feel anything in my sleep? I cannot even feel myself moving, breathing, and swallowing saliva! I cannot even hear anything, not even my alarm! Some people that I've been with says that I'm moving a lot in my sleep, how can I stop it?

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Why do people who aren't trans feel the need to put pronouns next to their name or picture? It seems so cringeworthy to me, to participate in that SJW paradigm of thought, like they are a spineless person who just goes along with the trends.