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.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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

What exactly is the difference between a surge protector and a fuse? Can a fuse protect the electronic devices from lightning instead of surge protector?

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

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.

The Director Of Final Fantasy Tactics Gets Political - Kotaku

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

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

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

When North Koreans visit other countries for the Olympics, what stops some of them fleeing away into that host country?

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

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

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.

South Korea halts propaganda broadcasts along border with rival North in a move to ease tensions - AP News

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

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

Mosquitoes are here early. How to keep the world’s deadliest animal out of your backyard. - NJ.com

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

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry not invited to King Charles’ Trooping the Colour for 3rd year in row - New York Post

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

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

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.

When a narcissist mad at their new supply, do they take it out on the old supply?

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.

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

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

Why aren't U.S. prisons more like Marine Corps boot camp, were every second of the day there are mandatory activities so that at night everyone is so tired they go to sleep until wakeup at 5:30 am? Would this make prisons safer for all?