2026-06-12 11:34:59
India tech friends: I just bought my ticket to IndiaFOSS in BLR Sept 26-27: fossunited.org/indiafoss/2026 Want to meet? Email me: sive.rs/contact
2026-05-22 12:00:00
About the craft of writing a great film screenplay. A bit tedious (with sloppy repetitive writing) but I always love these books for making me see the craft behind movies I know well, and pointing out how to use this craft to make better stories in any medium.
Read one page at random. If it doesn’t grab them, if it doesn’t make them want to turn the next page, the script is tossed away. Try it yourself with a classic script. Pick up Casablanca, Chinatown, or The Silence of the Lambs. Open it at random on any page and start reading. You’ll be hooked by the dialogue, characters, or conflicts in the scene, and you’ll want to turn the page.
Art is fire plus algebra.
Voyeuristic emotions relate to our curiosity about new information, new worlds, and the relationships between characters. When we identify with a character, we become them. We feel what the characters feel.
Visceral emotions are anticipation, tension, surprise, fear, excitement, laughter, etc.
Character emotions vs. reader emotions: distinguish these two types. For example, in a comedy, a character may be stressed, but as viewers, we laugh. Or in a thriller, he may be calm and unaware, while we fear for him because we know something he doesn’t. This distinction is essential because whether your character cries is not as important as whether the reader cries.
Emotion means “disturbance”. Move them: disturb their hearts and minds.
What convinces them to read that script is its appealing idea. The appeal of the concept: uniquely familiar, and it should promise conflict. We love stories with conflict, an idea that offers a clear and compelling conflict within its logline. The clearer the conflict, the better.
Doesn’t have to be directly relatable: Finding Nemo was a fish! But if the fish goes through familiar events, such as losing a wife, searching for an only son, they are emotions we can all understand.
Ask yourself what’s the worst thing that could happen to a character? The ultimate _____ from hell.
Contrast a character with the environment: “fish-out-of-water”: Wizard of Oz, Matrix, Beverly Hills Cop.
Add a time limit or a deadline.
Genre tells the reader up front what to expect The dominant genre will give you the main “flavor” of your story, while the other genres you combine to it will be the various “spices”.
Scenes, characters, dialogue, and images should ideally be a reflection of your theme. Your story is simply a tool to create circumstances that will showcase your theme.
Careful not to make the theme so obvious that it becomes preachy. Make the reader feel it instead of telling him. Reveal themeo in the form of a question rather than a statement.
Storytelling is the creative, emotional demonstration of the truth you want to express. Never explain intellectually. Dramatize emotionally.
Chinatown theme: the feeling of knowing what’s going on, while not really knowing it. Gittes in the dark as he tries to solve the mystery, thinking he knows what’s really going on. Evelyn, with her dark secret, is unaware of her father’s water-diverting scheme. Even Noah Cross, the mastermind holding the strings, doesn’t know that Evelyn is planning to escape Los Angeles with her daughter.
Tootsie: being a woman makes him a better man. 5 subplots: how Michael treats his girlfriend Sandy his relationship with Julie: his central romantic interest the male chauvinist director Julie’s widowed father who wants to marry Dorothy the show’s leading man who tries to seduce Dorothy. Each subplot represents an aspect of the overall theme.
Each character reveals a facet of the overall theme. In Tootsie, each of its subplots is represented by a character. The Godfather, which is about power: 1. Vito Corleone wants to keep it, 2. Michael doesn’t want anything to do with it at first, but then he’s forced or seduced to embrace it 3. Sonny can’t control it.
Present the opposite argument as powerfully as your truth. Do the Right Thing, which examined racism in all its complexity. Casablanca, where Rick repeats the line, “I stick my neck out for nobody” at various points throughout the film, reinforcing the theme of isolationism versus altruism.
Leitmotifs: Chinatown involves a water scheme. Water is a constant symbol throughout the film, through visuals (water torrents, the ocean, a fish pond), plot (characters drowning, corrupt villains controlling the water supply) and dialogue (“He’s got water on his brain.”) In Asian metaphors, Water can represent women, fertility, love, or an obstacle.
Make them care about somebody. When you stop caring for the characters, you’re no longer involved in the story.
“Anti-Hero” is a character who’s the opposite of the reader. Evokes fascination since we’re intrigued by glimpses of the dark side. Maybe we feel a hint of guilty admiration for their courage to be bad and challenge established morals. They’re not likable, so to form the crucial bond with them, the reader must understand them and admire something about them - their intelligence, their motives, their lack of options, or even a rare positive value, such as loyalty to family (The Godfather).
Stories become more interesting when a need clashes with the goal, like when a character is torn between what he feels and what he wants, where difficult choices must be made, often resulting in personal growth. When the character chooses goal over need, we have an unhappy ending, like in all tragedies. When the character chooses need over goal, this results in a happy ending.
What happens if he fails? And not only do you need to know what’s at stake, but it has to rise: Things have to get worse during the course of your story.
Protagonists must be active rather than passive. Not characters who only react to events.
Inner conflict - contrasting traits, flaws, desires, needs, and feelings, which create contradictions: Contrast with other characters: odd couple. Contrast with environment: fish out of water
To reveal character: reveal a character through others - how they talk about him or how they’re affected by him. The less we see a character everyone talks about or is affected by, the more we’ll be fascinated by him, and the more attention we’ll give him when we finally meet him.
Deep character is shown by how the individual reacts under pressure.
Fascinating characters create paradoxes - contradictions within themselves. Conflicting traits, different facets of personality. surprises within characters.
What is the character really afraid of? An open wound which haunts the character in your story and affects his inner need. Mystery in the emotional sense, as in “What will this character do next?”
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.
What a story is in its purest form: a character who wants something, and is having difficulty getting it.
Plot is the ordering of emotions.
Change in stories: - discoveries, which are changes in knowledge, - decisions, which are changes in actions.
Set up story questions. A question demands an answer. An emotional itch that needs to be scratched. The reader plays a more active role: filling in the blanks, making guesses, and assuming.
Every act within a story has its own question to answer. Within each act, every sequence sets up a sub-question, as does every scene within each sequence, and every beat within each scene. Think of these questions as little hooks to pull the reader along from beginning to end.
Unclear motives, character secrets, anticipation. Plot is a series of events designed to create anticipation in the form of curiosity, suspense, tension, hope, or worry.
When the anticipation is fulfilled, another emotion, depending on the payoff: surprise, disappointment, or relief.
Delay the payoff, but also create a whole bunch of mini-problems and mini-goals throughout the story. More important, make sure that a problem is not resolved before another starts.
Suspense is about the potential of bad things happening to a character we care about. Play between knowing what might happen and not-knowing what will happen.
Character empathy + Likelihood of threat + Uncertainty of outcome = SUSPENSE. Make ‘em laugh. Make ‘em cry. But most of all, make ‘em wait.
Character wins some and loses some, to avoid predictability. If character always wins, or always loses, there’s no suspense, no uncertainty of outcome. Go back and forth.
Displacing your character to a contrasting environment: “the fish out of water”. Creates conflict and doubt as to how the character will react to it. Sending an introvert to a party, or an aquaphobic on a cruise.
Ask what’s the worst thing that could happen if a character doesn’t get what he wants. This adds a believable and compelling motivation to their actions.
Casablanca and how often the importance of the letters of transit is mentioned. Each mention is not only a reminder in case you forgot, but an additional injection of suspense.
Unpredictable character response: GoodFellas is Joe Pesci’s terrifying “Do I amuse you?” speech. The unstable behavior of Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs.
Avoid predictability through surprise. Give the audience what they want, but not in the way they expect.
Obstacles and complications must be unexpected to create surprise.
Discovery is an active process, whereas a revelation is revealed. This minor distinction is nonetheless important in balancing your story with active discoveries and passive revelations.
Reversals turn the story upside down. You can’t get more unpredictable than that.
All stories have three movements - a beginning, middle, and end. You could structure a story as setup, complications, and resolution. Or in emotional terms as creating attraction, tension, and satisfaction.
The opening hook: Your opening scene must engage. You can’t be in the room with the reader to say, “Keep reading. It gets better!”
Types of openings: Hero in action: introduce your protagonist in the middle of conflict. Villain in action . Backstory/prologue: An exciting event that occurs prior to your main story and creates anticipation of what’s to follow. Mystery: Unique world.
Inciting event is powerful. It should automatically create the question “How will the hero resolve this problem?”
While a good opening hooks you, a great ending will generate good word-of-mouth and leave you talking about the film. Surprising and yet feel like it was inevitable. Bittersweet ending: when the hero loses but wins, or wins but loses.
Each scene must: 1. advance the story forward through conflict 2. reveal additional character layers 3. have an emotional impact
If page three creates anticipation, the reader will read page four. If page four creates tension, he’ll read page five, and so on. To make your screenplay a page-turner, you need to create emotional impact on each page.
Where to start a scene and where to end it: Get in late and get out early.
End the scene with a hit of visceral emotion, such as curiosity, anticipation, tension, or surprise. This automatically creates the desire to know what happens next.
Use a flashback only when it’s critical. Wait for the moment when the reader is dying to know the information. A flashback should always change the present situation.
Find that cliché, then get as far away from it as you can.
If a scene is about what the scene is really about, it’s flat.
2026-05-22 05:18:39
Fight Club: I liked it the first time years ago, but watching a second time when you already know the end reveal? Elevates it from good to great. So many brilliant details in the screenplay. What else in life is better the second time?
2026-05-14 12:00:00
Someone asks you to do something, and you feel that pressure to answer immediately.
You don’t really want to do it, but don’t know how to say so on the spot.
You avoid confrontation, and say OK.
You regret it, and later think of how your ideal eloquent self should have said no.
I felt the pain of this, over and over again. Then I finally figured out a solution that’s worked wonderfully for years.
I took an hour to write a really nice “no” in advance. Considerate, but decisive. Not too long, but not too short. Generalized and versatile for all situations.
I saved it on my computer and phone, to copy and paste. Now as soon as I get an unwelcome request? Tap-tap-tap. COPY-PASTE-SEND in three seconds, and it’s out of mind.
No anguish. No discomfort. No resentment. No procrastination.
It feels rude to reject so quickly, but I know this refusal is the kindest I could have written. Yet it took three seconds to send. And I can use it over and over again. Amazing.
A few people have written back saying it was the nicest “no” they’ve received.
Next: I memorized the gist of my text to use in-person.
It’s so handy in those high-pressure moments where someone is looking you in the eyes, asking you to do something, and awaiting your answer. No problem! You have it memorized and ready-to-go, even when unexpected. You can be kind but decisive on the spot.
I won’t post my text here, since it needs to be in your natural voice. But here’s my outline, in case it helps:
Four sentences is enough. Nobody wants verbosity here.
