I’ve been in re-write hell for … ohhhh… 3 months now. With the year nearly half-gone, I’ve only completed one script, THE DISCIPLE, which, truth-be-told, was half-written the previous year.
First there was a light re-do on THE DISCIPLE. No big whoop. Then 2+ months on BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL which became THE POSSESSED (10+ rewrites). [...]
An easy way to improve a script is to replace weak words with strong words.
Weak words are easy. I would call them lazy, but that implies that the writer was trying to take the easy path, and I don’t think that’s (always) the case. Sometimes, you just don’t know any better. So avoid the following:
begins [...]
Everything is a collaboration. A real-life Vulcan melting of the minds.
A give and take. A high-stakes negotiation. A SNL Dan Akroyd / Jane Curtin point / counter-point skit. When you work with smart people, they have both incredibly brilliant ideas along with incredibly moronic ideas. That’s just par for the course.
Sometimes their incredibly good ideas [...]
I am now managed by Alexander Robb of Insignia Entertainment. Please direct inquiries that-a-way.
M A R K
It’s the middle of the night in the first few days of May, 09. Not midnight. The real middle of the night. Three-ish. It’s… 3:15 a.m to be exact.
George Lutz time. Amityville time.
I use what can only be called “big ass LCD’s” on my computers. At 3:15 am, when they show that big blank white [...]
Writing occurs in different mental states.
Sometimes late in the day, sometimes early. Sometimes half-asleep, sometimes wide-awake. At any given moment during the day, my mood might be different than what it was a few moments ago.
This affects tone. Maybe in the morning it’s “Sheepishly, Billy hands the paper to Professor Jenkins.” By noon it’s “Billy, [...]