What goes into writing a great movie script?

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

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.

At what point does trespassing become self defense? What are the necessary conditions for this line to be crossed from trespassing to self defense?

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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

How do you like to be pegged?

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

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.

The "F1" Reviews Are In - Dark Horizons

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.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Why is pure dopamine not a recreational drug? And if it was wouldn’t it be the most addictive and fairly side effect free?

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

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

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

What’s the weirdest phone call you have ever received?

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

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

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.

If freedom of speech is absolute, how come it's not applied for private spaces and for the Internet?

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.

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.

What were the first few days, weeks, months and then years like after finding out about your spouses infidelity? How did your feelings, and yours & their approach to the situation change in the immediate aftermath compared to later down the line?

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

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.

I’m Considering Asking My Female Friend to Do Something Many Women Would Never Agree To - Slate Magazine