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.

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.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Scientists are attempting to resurrect the woolly mammoth but have just brought an unusual creature to life. - Stewartville Star

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

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

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

‘How To Train Your Dragon’ Review: Live-Action Take Subtly Stretches The Original’s Wingspan - Deadline

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.

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

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

What lowers a fever the quickest?

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

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

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

Did you ever receive genuine remarks from a medium regarding your deceased relative with information that the medium could never normally know?

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

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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.

After a series of tumors, woman’s odd-looking tongue explains everything - Ars Technica

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.”

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

What was the most challenging shift you experienced as an ER physician? Can you describe the details and reasons behind it?

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

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

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.

If you cloned 12 Michael Jordan's and 12 LeBron James' and had Team Jordan vs. James, which team would win the most games?

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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

Do many women shave their vaginas?