If I have a gift to the screenwriting world, it’s having a filter to sift through the mountains of material out there and find bite-sized chunks to post in this internet generation we’re living in. I love digging through interviews and finding quotes like the one below that was originally published 14 years ago:
“A writer’s greatest fear now is not that he’s going to be no good when he sits down to write. A writer’s greatest fear is that he’s going to be brilliant and that no one will read it, that no one can read it, that no one knows the difference because they read these stupid ‘How to write a screenplay’ books. It’s made people into idiots. In the old days the writer’s greatest fear was always, this time out, it just isn’t going to happen. I just won’t have the stuff. Now the fear is that I’ll have it, but those little jerks from Harvard Business School won’t be able to understand it. Because these MBAs can follow instruc-tions, they read these books and say your script has to have these characters and those turning points. They ask questions like, ‘Who are you rooting for at the end of the first act?’ I was never conscious of my screenplays having any acts. I didn’t know what a character arc was. It’s all bullshit. Tell a story.”
Oscar-nominated screenwriter John Milius (Apocalypse Now)
Interviewed by Erik Bauer, Creative Screenwriting March/April 2000
Best of Creative Screenwriting Interviews
P.S. Yesterday at Starbucks I overheard a conversation that applies to screenwriting well. A person was talking about a friend she had who was taking every real estate class he could to be a good realtor. Nothing wrong with that, right? There’s always a need for people to buy and sell houses even in a down market. But this fellows problem was he wasn’t buying and selling houses for clients—he was taking course after course trying to learning everything about being a realtor. He hadn’t helped one person buy or sell a home. He was addicted to the learning, not the doing. I imagine that hits close to home for many people who’ve studied screenwriting—maybe even started one or two—but never finish one. So don’t get caught too caught up in all the screenwriting books and blogs—TELL A STORY.
Related Post:
Start Small…But Start Somewhere
Starting Your Screenplay (Tip #6)
The 99% Focus Rule
The Secret to Being a Successful Screenwriter (Seriously)
How to Be a Successful Screenwriter (Tip #41)
Commitment in the Face of Failure