Letter from Hemingway to Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald asked Ernest Hemingway to read his newest novel at the time. This letter is Hemingway’s critique.
For Christ sake write and don’t worry about what the boys will say nor whether it will be a masterpiece nor what. I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.
Vince Gilligan talks about creating and running Breaking Bad and writing on the X-Files.
Source: nerdist.com
“Why’s this so good?” No. 32: Darcy Frey on the brink
Laurie Hertzel analyzes the pace and language of good suspenseful writing.
He keeps this tension going by sprinkling the narrative with reminders of how terrible things are. He doesn’t clump it all together in one blob, but every few paragraphs, every few scenes, he rolls out another reminder that everything could fall apart in an instant.
Pixar Story Basics
Pixar story artist Emma Coats has tweeted a series of “story basics” … — guidelines that she learned from her more senior colleagues on how to create appealing stories.
“What’s it about?”
Michael Piller, who wrote during the best years of Star Trek: The Next Generation, talks about the importance of theme in a story.
It is the thematic material I’m talking about, not the plot, the exploration of the world we live in that guides the development of the stories I like to work on.
Source: gointothestory.blcklst.com
Billy Wilder’s 10 screenwriting tips:
- Grab ‘em by the throat and never let go.
- Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
- The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
- If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
- Tip from Ernst Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
- The audience is fickle. Know where you’re going.
- In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they are seeing.
- The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
- The 3rd act must build, build, build in tempo until the last event, and then…
- …that’s it. Don’t hang around.
(Tips via Gwenda.)
(via austinkleon)
Source: gointothestory.com
Charlie Kaufman gives an incredible lecture
Charlie Kaufman gives an amazing lecture on writing, relationships, art, and life. So honest. This lecture is essential for anyone who makes things.
If you’re not into watching the 40 minute video, there is a transcript you can read.
So rather than being up here pretending I’m an expert in anything, or presenting myself in a way that will reinforce the odd, ritualised lecturer-lecturee model, I’m just telling you off the bat that I don’t know anything. And if there’s one thing that characterises my writing it’s that I always start from that realisation and I do what I can to keep reminding myself of that during the process. I think we try to be experts because we’re scared; we don’t want to feel foolish or worthless; we want power because power is a great disguise.
…
In many cases a major obstacle is your deeply seated belief that you are not interesting. And since convincing yourself that you are interesting is probably not going to happen, take it off the table. Think, ‘Perhaps I’m not interesting but I am the only thing I have to offer, and I want to offer something. And by offering myself in a true way I am doing a great service to the world, because it is rare and it will help.’
…
So I think the danger of craft is that it needs to be in second position to what it is that you’re doing. It’s seductive to put it in first position, often because what you’re doing is meaningless or worthless, or just more of the same. So you can distinguish yourself by being very, very good at it. I think you need to be willing to be naked when you do anything creatively in film or any other form, that’s really what you have to do because otherwise it’s very hard to separate it from marketing. I think that it just sort of becomes what it’s about.
…
The way I work is not the way that you work, and the whole point of any creative act is that. What I have to offer is me, what you have to offer is you, and if you offer yourself with authenticity and generosity I will be moved.
Source: gointothestory.blcklst.com
I always feel like, for me, writing is easy; it’s not writing that’s hard. I spend most of my time trying to write and failing—just climbing the walls, desperately trying to think of an idea, or figuring out what the next scene is supposed to be, constructing an intention and an obstacle. I spend most of my time having bad ideas, and you have to go through a Rolodex of a thousand bad ideas before you get to a good one.
Aaron Sorkin discusses The Social Network, his writing process, and how became “Aaron Sorkin.”
Source: gointothestory.blcklst.com
