What goes into writing a great movie script?

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

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

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.

What are some good series or movies like GOT in the fantasy genre?

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

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.

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

Building the 'Moonhouse': Q&A with artist Mikael Genberg - Space

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

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

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

Instead of worrying about your weight, focus on avoiding fragility - CNN

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

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

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

What made you feel satisfied about your life today?

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.

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.

Everyone says the pet population is out of control. Everyone says you MUST spay or neuter your pets. No one wants to talk about how its almost $1,000 to spay or neuter a pet. Why is it so expensive if its so necessary? Animal shelters do it for free.

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

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

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Why do I feel like I want to suck a big dick after injecting meth?

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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.

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

Is it possible for a judge to hold someone in contempt for not being able to pay a fine that was imposed during their sentencing hearing?

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.

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

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Why are white women so hard to date?