Joss Whedonâs Top 10 Writing Tips (Source)
Actually finishing it is what Iâm gonna put in as step one. You may laugh at this, but itâs true. I have so many friends who have written two-thirds of a screenplay, and then re-written it for about three years. Finishing a screenplay is first of all truly difficult, and secondly really liberating. Even if itâs not perfect, even if you know youâre gonna have to go back into it, type to the end. You have to have a little closure.
Structure means knowing where youâre going ; making sure you donât meander about. Some great films have been made by meandering people, like Terrence Malick and Robert Altman, but itâs not as well done today and I donât recommend it. Iâm a structure nut. I actually make charts. Where are the jokes ? The thrills ? The romance ? Who knows what, and when ? You need these things to happen at the right times, and thatâs what you build your structure around : the way you want your audience to feel. Charts, graphs, coloured pens, anything that means you donât go in blind is useful.
This really should be number one. Even if youâre writing a Die Hard rip-off, have something to say about Die Hard rip-offs. The number of movies that are not about what they purport to be about is staggering. Itâs rare, especially in genres, to find a movie with an idea and not just, âThisâll lead to many fine set-piecesâ. The Island evolves into a car-chase movie, and the moments of joy are when they have clone moments and you say, âWhat does it feel like to be those guys ?â
4. EVERYBODY HAS A REASON TO LIVE
Everybody has a perspective. Everybody in your scene, including the thug flanking your bad guy, has a reason. They have their own voice, their own identity, their own history. If anyone speaks in such a way that theyâre just setting up the next personâs lines, then you donât get dialogue : you get soundbites. Not everybody has to be funny ; not everybody has to be cute ; not everybody has to be delightful, and not everybody has to speak, but if you donât know who everybody is and why theyâre there, why theyâre feeling what theyâre feeling and why theyâre doing what theyâre doing, then youâre in trouble.
Hereâs one trick that I learned early on. If something isnât working, if you have a story that youâve built and itâs blocked and you canât figure it out, take your favourite scene, or your very best idea or set-piece, and cut it. Itâs brutal, but sometimes inevitable. That thing may find its way back in, but cutting it is usually an enormously freeing exercise.
When Iâve been hired as a script doctor, itâs usually because someone else canât get it through to the next level. Itâs true that writers are replaced when executives donât know what else to do, and thatâs terrible, but the fact of the matter is that for most of the screenplays Iâve worked on, Iâve been needed, whether or not Iâve been allowed to do anything good. Often someoneâs just got locked, theyâve ossified, theyâre so stuck in their heads that they canât see the people around them. Itâs very important to know when to stick to your guns, but itâs also very important to listen to absolutely everybody. The stupidest person in the room might have the best idea.
7. TRACK THE AUDIENCE MOOD
You have one goal : to connect with your audience. Therefore, you must track what your audience is feeling at all times. One of the biggest problems I face when watching other peopleâs movies is Iâll say, âThis part confuses meâ, or whatever, and theyâll say, âWhat Iâm intending to say is thisâ, and theyâll go on about their intentions. None of this has anything to do with my experience as an audience member. Think in terms of what audiences think. They go to the theatre, and they either notice that their butts are numb, or they donât. If youâre doing your job right, they donât. People think of studio test screenings as terrible, and thatâs because a lot of studios are pretty stupid about it. They panic and re-shoot, or they go, âGee, Brazil canât have an unhappy ending,â and thatâs the horror story. But it can make a lot of sense.
Write the movie as much as you can. If something is lush and extensive, you can describe it glowingly ; if something isnât that important, just get past it tersely. Let the read feel like the movie ; it does a lot of the work for you, for the director, and for the executives who go, âWhat will this be like when we put it on its feet ?â
Having given the advice about listening, I have to give the opposite advice, because ultimately the best work comes when somebodyâs fucked the system ; done the unexpected and let their own personal voice into the machine that is moviemaking. Choose your battles. You wouldnât get Paul Thomas Anderson, or Wes Anderson, or any of these guys if all moviemaking was completely cookie-cutter. But the process drives you in that direction ; itâs a homogenizing process, and you have to fight that a bit. There was a point while we were making Firefly when I asked the network not to pick it up : theyâd started talking about a different show.
The first penny I ever earned, I saved. Then I made sure that I never had to take a job just because I needed to. I still needed jobs of course, but I was able to take ones that I loved. When I say that includes Waterworld, people scratch their heads, but itâs a wonderful idea for a movie. Anything can be good. Even Last Action Hero couldâve been good. Thereâs an idea somewhere in almost any movie : if you can find something that you love, then you can do it. If you canât, it doesnât matter how skillful you are : thatâs called whoring.â
Want more writerly content? Follow maxkirin.tumblr.com!
jimmyeatworldofficial
2087
yousharknotpass
prguitarman
discoholicmusic
