Just a moment...
From an instant to eternity, from the intracranial to the intergalactic, the life story of each and every character offers encyclopedic possibilities. The mark of a master is to select only a few moments but give us a lifetime.
Robert McKee • Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting
People often write scripts or make films because they want to say something and share their love of an idea. Sharing that with too many people before completion may mean they feel it’s mission accomplished and they take their foot
Tim Clague • The UK Scriptwriters Survival Handbook: or How to Earn an Actual Living as a Writer
If a filmmaker (who writes) can get through those 120 or so pages, the fun part begins. Actually, every stage of filmmaking is full of torment and endless setbacks, but you’re no longer alone. The truth is, I’m never as happy as when I’m making a film, not so much because I'm actively enjoying it; the unrelenting stress, the prospect of failure, th... See more
Divine Thing: A Note from Aaron Schimberg
“I applied that to all my other work: filmmaking and everything. Even if I didn’t know what to do, I just had to begin. For a lot of people, that’s the part that keeps them back the most. They think, ‘Well, I don’t have an idea, so I can’t start.’ I know you’ll only get the idea once you start. It’s this totally reverse thing. You have to act first
... See moreFerriss, Timothy • Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers
The movie producer and all-around mensch Stuart Cornfeld once told me that in a good screenplay, every structural unit needs to do two things: (1) be entertaining in its own right and (2) advance the story in a non-trivial way.
George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo
Make your ACTION-IDEA the driving force behind every scene and the subject of your story.
Michael Tierno • Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization
Art requires access to the imagination, a notoriously difficult place to visit. The imagination fuels an idea. The artist acts urgently, often impulsively, on that idea but brings conscious rigor to the evaluation of what the imagination has spewed. Ultimately, experience, intellect, insight, and drive enable them to shape the work and then to edit
... See moreAdam Moss • The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing
the story arts have become humanity’s prime source of inspiration, as it seeks to order chaos and gain insight into life.