What goes into writing a great movie script?

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

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

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

Am I in the wrong for getting upset with my neighbor who was weed whacking at 9 am on a Saturday? Should I apologize for being rude? I found this was obnoxious and inconsiderate, considering I work very late on weekends.

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

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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

What destroys relationships between actors in Hollywood?

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

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

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.

Ford Stock Rises After Strong May Sales. The Pain Is Coming. - Barron's

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.

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

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

What's the difference between “ce”, “ça”, and “cela”, and when do I use each (French)?

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

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.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Why is my ex still keeping in touch with me even though she dumped me?

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

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

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.

More seniors are using cannabis than ever before despite health risks, research shows - Fox News

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

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

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

Wall Street’s big rally stalls following some discouraging economic data - AP News

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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.

Agent-based computing is outgrowing the web as we know it - VentureBeat