What goes into writing a great movie script?

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.

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.

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

PGA Tour Announces Unfortunate News About Multiple Golfers During US Open - Athlon Sports

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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

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

How do atoms form? A physicist explains where the atoms that make up everything around come from - The Conversation

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

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

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

The Biggest Pokémon Card Crashers And Climbers This Week - June 2 - IGN

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

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

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

India's central bank beats market expectations to deliver an outsized rate cut of 50 points - CNBC

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

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.

What was the worst spanking you got growing up?

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.

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.

Murder, Sexual Assault, And Massive Fraud: 15 Celebrities Who Are In Jail For A Long Time - BuzzFeed

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

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.

Is there any evidence to support the existence of people who have experienced "gangstalking"? Or is it a psychological phenomenon?

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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

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.

Is there a band whose members have been present for every one of their concerts?