Rule #1: There are no rules.
the mythical orthodoxy of screenwriting
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Don't show extremely graphic displays of violence in progress against children or animals. If they are to be victims of violence, only show their bodies afterward. If you show a little kid or puppy getting splattered onscreen, the audience will hate you.
Don't know if that's really a rule, but I've heard it repeated often enough by film professors and on messageboards.
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Some other people already mentioned the ones that irk me the most, but here are a few more:
- Spelling doesn't matter. An editor will clean your script up later.
- You'll never sell from outside of Los Angeles.
- If you write a great script, it'll magically find its way into the right hands.
- Using CAPS for anything other than character intros is amateurish.
- If a pro did it, that gives you the green light to do it, too.
- If a pro did it, that means you can't/shouldn't do it.
- A comedy MUST have a hilarious joke/situation ON EVERY SINGLE PAGE.
- The leaner it is, the better it is.
- You won't/can't sell your first script.
- You won't sell until your 9th or 10th script.
- You're either born a writer or you're not.
- Anyone can learn to be a good screenwriter if they just practice.
- Learning theories won't help you improve your writing.
- The end of your first act must land on page 30. The end of your second on page 90, etc.
- Nine act structure is fundamentally/dramatically different from three act structure. :rolleyes
- Query letters don't work.
- No one at the Big 5 will answer your queries.
- If you write it, they will cum.
- If you can't write a good logline, then your script is obviously flawed.
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Re: rules
Rule 1: outline, outline and outline
Rule 2: look for the universal truth in the story you're trying to tell
Rule 3: tell your story in a dramatic way
Rule 4: tell your story in a visual way
Rule 5: get the first draft done
Rule 6: accept all notes as help rather than personal criticism - always start off from the POV that the person giving the notes is right and you are wrong
Rule 7: never assume you know your story better than anyone else
Rule 8: rewrite, rewrite and rewrite
Rule 9: read screenplays
Rule 10: never give up learning
Rule 11: keep writing, keep churning out scripts - each one will teach you something (there is no substitute for doing)
Rule 12: write because you have to, because you love it, because it gives you pleasure - not because you want lots of money or an Oscar
Rule 13: write the kind of scripts you would pay to watch - write what interests you, what you're passionate about, even if it's uncommercial (just don't expect to sell it)
Rule 14: live a life worth living - enjoy life - get out and do stuff outside your safety zone, be alive; it's easy to write if you have something to say and our experience is the fuel for what we write
Rule 15: realise that there are no rules in screenwriting, but that you have to know what they are before you can break them
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