Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

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  • Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

    1. The longer my script, the smaller my story

    2. One drawn out scene after another, no matter how well-written, is indicative of me trying to find my story.

    3. Dramatic Impact is only as strong as what preceded it.

    4. Sometimes the crust is the best part of the pizza. But no one sells crust separately.
    "I ask every producer I meet if they need TV specs they say yeah. They all want a 40 inch display that's 1080p and 120Hz. So, I quit my job at the West Hollywood Best Buy."
    - Screenwriting Friend

  • #2
    Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

    1. It's a lonely art.

    2. Finding ways to create great dialogue while staying off the nose is a must.

    3. Trying not to get a Vitamin D deficiency, due to writing all day and never leaving the house, is now part of the process.

    4. I don't want to do anything else.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

      1. My concepts are all crap.

      2. I'm not a real writer.

      3. I'm wasting my life.

      4. Should I make scene headings bold?
      Know this: I'm a lazy amateur, so trust not a word what I write.
      "The ugly can be beautiful. The pretty, never." ~ Oscar Wilde

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

        1. Don't define your happiness or success by the highs and lows of screenwriting.

        2. Make time for family and friends. Screenwriting isn't everything.

        3. When you get paid for writing, buy something nice as a reward but not so expensive that you'll regret it later.

        4. If you are writing as a hobby, enjoy the process. If it stops giving you joy, find some other pursuit (see 2).

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

          1. Starting a line of dialogue with "Well," is almost always unnecessary. Get rid of it.

          2. Write the thing that scares you the most.

          3. What 'Boog said.

          4. You only fail if you give up. Remember, training is like fighting a bear. You don't stop when you get tired, you stop when the bear gets tired.
          ==========

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          • #6
            Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

            1. “... there is no new thing under the sun.” — Ecclesiastes 1:9; use literary devices (do not overuse them) to their best advantage.

            2. Write the story about which you are passionate instead of chasing the market.

            3. If you set it up, pay it off.

            4. Write The Truth.
            “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

              1. On page 7, just as readers are about to doze off, hit your protagonist with a giant frying pan. Or a piano.

              2. Have all your characters think and talk like you, this will lend y'alls screenplay an air of realism which will resonate with readers and, eventually, the viewing audience.

              3. In coffee shops, always refer to your screenplay as a speculation script, this will impress other writers who will think you're a pro and will worry they've got it wrong all this time.

              4. I really like that bear analogy. Never give up, never surrender, as a wise man said.

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              • #8
                Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

                Top tip: Don't bring a **** to a bear fight.

                [The word 'c o c k' was automatically asterisked.]
                Know this: I'm a lazy amateur, so trust not a word what I write.
                "The ugly can be beautiful. The pretty, never." ~ Oscar Wilde

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

                  1. Show. Don't tell.

                  2. "There are only three kinds of scenes: a fight, a seduction, or a negotiation." -- Mike Nichols

                  3. "People may or may not say what they mean... but they always say something designed to get what they want." -- David Mamet

                  4. "The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything." -- Voltaire

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting
                    1. When introducing main characters, have them talk about themselves, show them in action, have other characters talk about them.
                    2. Put the promise of another scene in every scene... with the possible exception of the last scene.
                    3. Write a verbal or physical reaction to every joke, punch, or laughline.
                    4. Become an expert in the genre you're writing in.


                    .
                    Just my 2 cents, your mileage may vary.

                    -Steve Trautmann
                    3rd & Fairfax: The WGAW Podcast

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                    • #11
                      Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

                      1. Choose a different career.

                      2. Choose a different career.

                      3. Choose a different career.

                      4. And if you can't choose a different career, then don't listen to faceless strangers on the internet unless their advice makes sense.
                      il faut d'abord durer

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                      • #12
                        Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

                        1. no concept day dreamt at work, survives the car ride home to the computer

                        2. you cannot write within 100 meters of an eleven year old playing fortnite

                        3. it will never be perfect

                        4. they will steal your ideas if you let them, please don your tinfoil hat now!
                        I heard the starting gun


                        sigpic

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                        • #13
                          Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

                          1. The boyfriend of the daughter of a former co-worker of mine just finished directing a movie he wrote starring the guy who played the clown in "It" (2017).

                          2. The first producer to contact me about a script that I didn't query him for was a former assistant of Harvey Weinstein.

                          3. On my flight to my first Great American Pitchfest, I sat a seat apart from the guy who played "Dr. Kelso" on "Scrubs" and didn't recognize who he was.

                          4. I once took a screenwriting class with a guy who seemed emo, who is now a stand-up comedian and a semi-famous writer on Saturday Night Live.

                          Guess which one is true.
                          "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.-- Peter De Vries

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

                            1) Whoa doggie, them is a lot of alphabit and dots and such, put in with a typie thing.

                            2) I wonder what INTs and EXTs is and why they always gets spelled with them big letters.

                            2) Some of them folk with them big letter typie names, sure does talk and talk a lots.

                            3) Whoa doggie, them is a lot of alphabit and dots and such, put in with a typie thing.

                            4) Since I is a perfeshional, my speculation scripts won't never have no we see, nor camera pointers neither.
                            "I just couldn't live in a world without me."

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Four Thoughts on Screenwriting

                              Originally posted by UpandComing View Post
                              1. The boyfriend of the daughter of a former co-worker of mine just finished directing a movie he wrote starring the guy who played the clown in "It" (2017).

                              2. The first producer to contact me about a script that I didn't query him for was a former assistant of Harvey Weinstein.

                              3. On my flight to my first Great American Pitchfest, I sat a seat apart from the guy who played "Dr. Kelso" on "Scrubs" and didn't recognize who he was.

                              4. I once took a screenwriting class with a guy who seemed emo, who is now a stand-up comedian and a semi-famous writer on Saturday Night Live.

                              Guess which one is true.
                              All of 'em were plausible! So I vote all of 'em!

                              Comment

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