What goes into writing a great movie script?

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

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

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

Culpa nobis molestiae ab dignissimos omnis nesciunt.

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

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.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Google says its updated Gemini 2.5 Pro AI model is better at coding - TechCrunch

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

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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

Can you tell me a depressing story?

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.

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

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

Why does Russia support Palestine in the Middle East conflict?

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.

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

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

Men are more likely than women to die of broken heart syndrome, study finds - CNN

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

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

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

Researchers raise red flag that doctors may be underprepared for devastating new disease emerging in US: 'We want to give the early warning' - Yahoo

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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.

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.

What do you like about McDonald's?

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

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

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Boris Johnson says that “Starmer picked a fraudster for his Cabinet because he is the fraudster-in-chief. And he knows, in his heart, that the whole government is a fraud.” Do you agree with Boris Johnson about Starmer?