What goes into writing a great movie script?

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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

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

What are some of your shocking stories?

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

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.

Measles Case: Visitors To Mahopac Restaurant May Have Been Exposed, Officials Warn - dailyvoice.com

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

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

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

A Common Stimulant Could Hold the Key to Preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - SciTechDaily

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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

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

Disney to pay almost $439 million to take full control of streaming service Hulu - AP News

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.

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

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

How do I induce a fever?

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

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

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

What were the career paths of each member of "The Monkees" after the band disbanded? Did any of them have successful music careers?

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.

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.

Can BRICS defeat the US economically?

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Why would an older small breed dog become obsessive about hygiene?