What goes into writing a great movie script?

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

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

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Does the color purple really exist? - Live Science

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

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

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

Is it okay to pay 12,000 SEK for rent 67m² furnished house for 2 people in Jönköping, Sweden? It also includes electricity, internet, heating, and water expenses.

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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.

Used vehicle prices ease from tariff fear-buying highs but remain elevated - CNBC

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.

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

Is BPD real or just an excuse?

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.

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

AI Is Upending the Job Market, Even at AI Companies Like Anthropic - Business Insider

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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.

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

Guy Hears Cries During Hailstorm — Then Saves An Entire Family - The Dodo - For Animal People

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

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

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

This group is the most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses by far - The Washington Post

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.

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

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

Why do most atheists in debates with theists take Bible verses out of context much of the time? Are they lying maliciously or do they not understand theology enough to understand the meaning?