What goes into writing a great movie script?

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.

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.

Geologists Accidentally Found a Ghost Plume Rising From Earth’s Mantle - AOL.com

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

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

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

Mets to call up Max Kranick to take Kodai Senga's roster spot - SNY

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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

Simone Biles ‘incinerated her legacy’ with trans athlete posts: Riley Gaines - New York Post

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

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

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

Can a bride cheat on her groom at a wedding?

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

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

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

Which is the worst Bollywood movie you have ever seen and why?

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

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

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.

Dakota Johnson shows Chris Martin what he's missing post-breakup in completely sheer ensemble - Page Six

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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

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.

Jenny from Perth writes – my partner is the life of the party, women and men adore him. But at home, he gets angry at us for the silliest reasons and never nice words me or our kids, always putting us down. Should I stay or leave him?

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

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

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

What is life without a job?