Screenwriting Quote of the Day #25 (400 Year Old Advice)

Since I like to focus on dramatic writers with origins outside L.A. I think Lope de Vega qualifies. The playwright was born in Madrid, Spain in 1562 and is thought to have written around 1,500 plays. I was unaware of him until I read The Tools of Screenwriting by David Howard and Edward Mabley a few years ago.

In the book’s introduction is sound advice with what to do with all that you’ve learned about screenwriting:

“My hope is that the reader will take all the rational and reasonable body of knowledge this book offers, that he or she will digest it in the manner recommended by Lope de Vega…in his comprehensive study of dramatic theory and practice, Writing Plays in Our Times (published in 1609 and written in verse) he stated openly and bravely, after having introduced all the “rules”: ‘When I have to write a play, I lock up the rules with six keys.”‘
                                          Frank Daniel
                                          The Tools of Screenwriting
                                          Introduction

 

Scott W. Smith