What goes into writing a great movie script?

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.

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.

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

What do you think about a sister's love?

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

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

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

What is the meaning behind people claiming to hear voices of God in their heads without anyone else hearing them? Is this a sign of mental illness or possession by an evil spirit?

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.

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

What does it mean when someone says "I'm feeling frisky"?

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are some hard truths that MAGA needs to hear?

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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.

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

Mars Orbiter Captures Rare View of Ancient Volcano Poking Above the Clouds - Gizmodo

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

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.

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

Trans athlete embraced as California track and field champion by peers while adult activists duel - San Francisco Chronicle

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

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

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

Have you ever seen your wife being fucked?