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.

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

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

JoJo Siwa Says She Is 'Head Over Heels' as She Confirms Relationship with Chris Hughes: 'It's Not Platonic Anymore' - People.com

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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.

Rory McIlroy explains frequently skipping media availability: ‘I feel I have earned the right to do whatever I want’ - Awful Announcing

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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.

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

China Rare-Earth Magnet Maker Gets Green Light for US Exports - Bloomberg

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.

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

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

Kharkiv hit by ‘most powerful attack’ of entire war, mayor says, as Russia pounds Ukraine again - CNN

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

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

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

The GLP-1 Weight Loss Drug Ozempic Is Reportedly Giving Men A Lot To Brag About, Down Under - Wccftech

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.

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

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

Why Some People Hear Better in Noise Than Others - Neuroscience News

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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

Shohei Ohtani pitches sharp first inning for Dodgers before driving in 5 runs at the plate - AP News

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

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.

Apple quietly makes running Linux containers easier on Macs - ZDNet