What goes into writing a great movie script?

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

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

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

Are Americans really as uneducated and ignorant as portrayed in the media?

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

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

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

What are the signs that a guy wants to marry you but is afraid of commitment or does not want to get married at all?

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

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.

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.

How much higher are McDonald's prices going to go?

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

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

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

Why has Biden pulled ahead in battleground states and is now projected to win the 2024 presidency?

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.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

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.

The people who are 'allergic' to humans - BBC

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

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

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Veteran investor makes surprising Fed rate call after jobs report - TheStreet

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.

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

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

Could humans be selectively bred, like dogs, to create 2 subspecies that can no longer have offspring? Do I not understand selective breeding properly? Im not worried about the moral implications, just the science please.

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

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

Do you agree with Kamala Harris that Donald Trump is dangerous?