What goes into writing a great movie script?

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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.

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

What is the worst name in Tolkien’s legendarium (meaning and look)?

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

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

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

Roman Anthony changes to jersey number with a lot of Red Sox history - MassLive

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

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.

Vice President JD Vance Just Delivered Incredible News to Bitcoin Investors - Yahoo Finance

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

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

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

Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. files complaint seeking to void future-earnings deal - San Diego Union-Tribune

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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

Why did Democrats echo that Joe Biden was greater than FDR and should be put on Mt Rushmore? Why did Democrats vote for Biden blindly in the primaries and deny he was mentally impaired? Was it the lying media, or are Democrats ignorant and gullible?

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.

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

Switch 2 quietly makes shiny hunting in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet way better - Polygon

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.

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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

"I Always Travel With This": Doctors Are Sharing The Illness-Avoiding Practices They Always Implement While Traveling, And They're So Important - BuzzFeed

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

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.

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

Missouri governor signs Chiefs, Royals stadium bill - NBC Sports