What goes into writing a great movie script?

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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.

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

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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.

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

Its year 2041, and president Hunter Biden has ordered every republican who sweared at him to be arrested and shot. I am on my way to the death row listening to the cheer of the Liberal mob chanting death death death. How can I escape?

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

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

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

I saw a post on X which says "control your lust & you'll understand how boring 90% of women are." What do you think about it? Do you agree or disagree? Why?

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

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

Is the Las Vegas Grand Prix considered one of the "premier events on the Formula 1 calendar?"

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.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

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 government destroying the homeless instead of helping them?

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

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

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

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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.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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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.

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.

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

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