What goes into writing a great movie script?

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

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

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

Why do liberals have a problem with masculine men like Andrew Tate?

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

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.

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

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

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

What do you think of Donald Trump doing a Tesla infomercial today for Elon Musk—his biggest political donor—in front of the White House?

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

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.

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.

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Actors give better feedback than writers do.

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

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

Has your wife made you a cuckold?

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

If white people had been slaves, would WLM be a thing right now?

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

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.

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

How do I write a character’s physical description without it feeling unnatural and clunky? I’m able to describe their hair and body relatively easily because my writing puts emphasis on small movements and fidgeting, but I can’t describe faces.

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.

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

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