What goes into writing a great movie script?

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

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.

Why does he text me first but when I never text first he gets mad?

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.

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

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

Why is the left keep misrepresenting what Trump said about his daughter? When asked if he would date her if he weren’t her father, it simply reflected pride in raising a smart, respectful, and loving daughter with good morals all men want that no?

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

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

Nam eos consequatur amet quis qui dolorem optio.

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

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.

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

Is Computer Science worth 5 years from now? I am interested in learning Python. Should I start studying on my own? Will AI fully replace the coders? Lastly, should I change my career?

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

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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

Can you tell me a depressing story?

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.

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

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

Citadel's Esposito says US deficit is a 'ticking time bomb' - Yahoo Finance

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.

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

During the Atlmark incident in 1940, the Brit war criminals violated Norwegian neutrality. Hitler could then justify invading Norway. Have the Brits ever apologized for violating Norwegian neutrality?

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.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

If Republicans say that Biden goes to shower with his daughter, how do Democrats support it?