Unless you want to read the least definitive thread regarding screenwriting. I've found most of the following on the back of matchbook cover:
The pacing thread got off topic and there have been great threads in this forum, as always, with the help of the pros. What I'm struck by in most of these threads is a disproportionate number of writers who are new to DD have HTOCD. How To Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Look it up on Wikipedia.net. The books say this. Save The Cat says this. Linda Seger says this. John Truby says this. Chinatown is a classic (it is) so that book is right. Read the book because you spent money on it and then PUT IT ON THE SHELF.
GET THE BOOKS OUT OF YOUR HEAD. Except for Aristotle's Poetics. He's Greek and he wrote that so long ago he has to be right. Otherwise,.. STOP IT STOP IT. STOP IT.
You've watched a thousand movies. You've read a hundred novels. You've read just as many screenplays.
You have a logline.
Write your outline.
Write your script.
Develop your natural instinct for storytelling if you want to be a storyteller and vice versa.
The volume of how-to books and seminars out there devoted to screenwriting is staggering. Is there any other art form in existence that has engendered so much instruction, codified guidance and how-to publications?
Storytelling is an art form. Screenwriting is an art form. The most memorable artists, authors developed their instincts. They had, have talent, but they had VISION.
What good is instinct and vision when Hollywood is a business and not interested in art as much as it is interested in commercial material and within that, genre specific material. That is a mindf-ck of sorts for those who really really want to write. Don't let it screw with your mind. You read the books. You wanted to tell a story or stories. Maybe you'd be better off writing a novel, a novella or short story?
No, you've decided to tell your stories on the biggest f-ing canvas in the universe. You want to write that killer spec that will get a Nicholl or a Blacklist nom or that huge tyro scribe sale that makes it on the front page of Variety. Wrong answer. But if that's what you came for, why the hell are you in this forum? Go to the Business forum. Do the research. Pick up every copy of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Write what's popular. Get the bestselling screenplay book and write accordingly.
But you're in this forum looking for answers. Most of the time 99% of the time you have the answers. Have confidence in your desire to tell a story. After all, you're doing this because you want to, you need to, if you didn't there would be one big regret, maybe more nagging at you when you're lying there with the other hospice patients.
You have the answers.
Why did you want to tell your story?
Why this story?
Why these characters?
Why this genre?
You want to write screenplays.
You have a genre.
You have a logline.
Write your outline.
Write your script.
Keep those books on the shelves. You've read them.
Now it's all you. Your storytelling instincts. Your vision.
Carry on.
And all on the cover of matchbook.
The pacing thread got off topic and there have been great threads in this forum, as always, with the help of the pros. What I'm struck by in most of these threads is a disproportionate number of writers who are new to DD have HTOCD. How To Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Look it up on Wikipedia.net. The books say this. Save The Cat says this. Linda Seger says this. John Truby says this. Chinatown is a classic (it is) so that book is right. Read the book because you spent money on it and then PUT IT ON THE SHELF.
GET THE BOOKS OUT OF YOUR HEAD. Except for Aristotle's Poetics. He's Greek and he wrote that so long ago he has to be right. Otherwise,.. STOP IT STOP IT. STOP IT.
You've watched a thousand movies. You've read a hundred novels. You've read just as many screenplays.
You have a logline.
Write your outline.
Write your script.
Develop your natural instinct for storytelling if you want to be a storyteller and vice versa.
The volume of how-to books and seminars out there devoted to screenwriting is staggering. Is there any other art form in existence that has engendered so much instruction, codified guidance and how-to publications?
Storytelling is an art form. Screenwriting is an art form. The most memorable artists, authors developed their instincts. They had, have talent, but they had VISION.
What good is instinct and vision when Hollywood is a business and not interested in art as much as it is interested in commercial material and within that, genre specific material. That is a mindf-ck of sorts for those who really really want to write. Don't let it screw with your mind. You read the books. You wanted to tell a story or stories. Maybe you'd be better off writing a novel, a novella or short story?
No, you've decided to tell your stories on the biggest f-ing canvas in the universe. You want to write that killer spec that will get a Nicholl or a Blacklist nom or that huge tyro scribe sale that makes it on the front page of Variety. Wrong answer. But if that's what you came for, why the hell are you in this forum? Go to the Business forum. Do the research. Pick up every copy of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Write what's popular. Get the bestselling screenplay book and write accordingly.
But you're in this forum looking for answers. Most of the time 99% of the time you have the answers. Have confidence in your desire to tell a story. After all, you're doing this because you want to, you need to, if you didn't there would be one big regret, maybe more nagging at you when you're lying there with the other hospice patients.
You have the answers.
Why did you want to tell your story?
Why this story?
Why these characters?
Why this genre?
You want to write screenplays.
You have a genre.
You have a logline.
Write your outline.
Write your script.
Keep those books on the shelves. You've read them.
Now it's all you. Your storytelling instincts. Your vision.
Carry on.
And all on the cover of matchbook.
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