What goes into writing a great movie script?

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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

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.

Maybe not best, but Sounders are most fitting MLS Club World Cup representative - Sounder at Heart

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.

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.

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

Florence gallery says portrait damaged by visitor taking a selfie - BBC

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.

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

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.

What are some common historical misconceptions?

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

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

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

Why does Mars look purple, yellow and orange in ESA's stunning new satellite image? - Live Science

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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

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

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Wear Matching Outfits For Their First Public Appearance in Months - instyle.com

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

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

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

How would the Arab world be different if there was no Israel-Palestine conflict? Would there be better relations among its members?

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

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

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

Why can't white people just surrender their white privilege?

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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

With a housing crisis going on, should we make owning properties illegal?