What goes into writing a great movie script?

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

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

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

What does it mean to live "the 'underconsumption' life"?

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.

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

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.

Why won't my mom let me come home if I'm homeless?

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

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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.

Why are you a Muslim? Why is it Islam for you and not something else?

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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

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.

New body size database for marine animals is a “library of life” - Ars Technica

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

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

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

Is there any way for Zelensky to prevent the United States and Russia from harming Ukraine's interests?

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

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

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.

Non adipisci autem repellat fugiat.

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

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

Gold Holds Decline After US Jobs Data Deters Demand for Havens - Bloomberg

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

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

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

Why Disney’s AI Lawsuit Will Determine Whether Studios Survive - The Hollywood Reporter