When I started this blog in 2008 I don’t recall the word curate being quite as in vogue is it is today. But curating has been a large part of what I’ve done. It started with a mountain of over 200 books on screenwriting and filmmaking that I’d collected since my film school days.
Most of them with yellow highlight marks of quotes and paragraphs that stood out to me. And that was the foundation to build on for the past nine years. This year I’m going through those 2,300+ posts and pulling the best.
Here one of my all-time favorite writing quotes from the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega—and happens to be 400 year old advice. It comes from the introduction to a book written by David Howard and Howard Mabley.
“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 (First dean of the American Film Institue)
The Tools of Screenwriting/ Introduction
The basic thought there is whatever “rules” you have embraced along the way, lock them away when you start the writing process.
Note: This quote was originally published in 2009 on this blog in the post Screenwriting Quote 25 (400 Year Old Advice).
Related posts:
Rules, No Rules, Breaking Rules
There Are No Rules
There Are No Rules, But…
I am sure I am missing the point of your blog but as an editor I highly recommend five minutes of Photoshop to fix the title of “Hoosiers.” Unless of course it was intentional because of it being Indiana and all . . .
Nice catch JJ. But you know journalistic standards and all prevents changing things in Photoshop. Not sure where I bought that script, but it says “Hoosies” so Hoosies it is. Or could it be that “Hoosies” is a different movie that “Hoosiers”? (A movie that never got made, of course.)
Hi Mr. Smith,
I am a 16 year old from India and have had a huge passion from writing and storytelling. I have been following your blog for some time now, and have found it really helpful in understanding what it takes to become a screenwriter. I really want to become a professional screenwriter or an author, and fully understand about all the hardships and struggles of becoming a writer. Nevertheless, I’m willing to put the effort and patience in.
The problem is, I don’t know how to start off my career. English is my main language, and I write in that. I know it’s kind of impossible to become a screenwriter from all the way here in India. I regularly write and publish some of my work on my blog, and have also written and directed a couple short films for some competitions(have not won any so far). I don’t have any connections to an big production names. What would you suggest I do, to get noticed and become a screenwriter in Hollywood in the long run?
Thanks,
Valli