I would like to win the Pulitzer Prize. I would like to win the Nobel Prize. I would like to win a Tony award for the Broadway musical I’m now working on. Aside from these, my aspirations are modest ones.
October 20, 2011
Quote of the Day: Evan Hunter
October 13, 2011
Being Tough on Yourself as a Writer
This video from Jacob Krueger discusses how to develop a healthy relationship with your writing, knowing that the vast majority of what you write down is going to suck. He talks about being tough on your own scripts without totally beating yourself up, either. Take a look and be inspired to bring out the greatness in your next draft:
October 7, 2011
Quote of the Day: Lawrence Konner
I think the first thing you should do before writing a script is to sit down and write a biography of that person.
October 4, 2011
Quote of the Day: Robert Towne
An audience will forgive a lot at the beginning but very little at the end.
September 30, 2011
Quote of the Day: Tom Schulman
For me the challenge is always to look inside myself and find what’s really behind what I’m working on.
September 29, 2011
Quote of the Day: William Carlos Williams
To make the listener listen, the theme is repeated stressing a variant: it is a principle of music to repeat the theme. Repeat and repeat again, as the pace mounts.
September 28, 2011
Charlie Kaufman’s Take on Screenwriting
Charlie Kaufman is far and away one of my favorite working screenwriters. He’s written such meta masterpeices as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, and Adaptation. In this recent interview, Kaufman offers his perspective on screenwriting and the business of film:
On studio filmmaking…
‘In a lot of movies, especially big studio ones, they’re not constructed in any other way than to get people to like them and then tell their friends. It’s a product. It’s like building a Buick. I don’t think the studios would even argue with that. It’s a very big business, a very risky business, and they want some sort of certainty that they’re going to succeed. They push certain buttons. But those movies aren’t interesting to me.’
On being seen as a ‘mathematical’ screenwriter…
‘I’ve heard people say that, and I don’t approach things that way. It often does come down to imagining different permutations of events. But I’m certainly not mathematical by training. I have a personality that tends to be somewhat compulsive, and I do tend to think in a circular way. I dwell on the same things over and over and I try to figure out different ways of looking at the same issue.’
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September 28, 2011
Quote of the Day: Amy Holden Jones
Usually when you have a block, It’s because you’ve lost the motor of the story.
September 15, 2011
Quote of the Day: Chuck Mondry
I don’t think you can get around it: good writing’s inspired. Period.
August 29, 2011
Quote of the Day: Chuck Mondry
I’m not very comfortable giving advice to other writers. Writing just doesn’t come easy for me. Actually, it’s pretty much constant FAILURE.
