deviant art

Deviant Login Shop  Join deviantART for FREE Take the Tour
×

More from *WilsonWJr in News


×
I recently made a post and shared an article I found where Joss Whedon shared his top ten writing tips. The first five are here and the full list is on our blog! Great stuff!!!



Find the full article here.

Joss Whedon is most famous for creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off Angel and the short-lived but much-loved Firefly series. But the writer and director has also worked unseen as a script doctor on movies ranging from Speed to Toy Story. Here, he shares his tips on the art of screenwriting.

1. FINISH IT

Actually finishing it is what I’m gonna put in as step one. You may laugh at this, but it’s true. I have so many friends who have written two-thirds of a screenplay, and then re-written it for about three years. Finishing a screenplay is first of all truly difficult, and secondly really liberating. Even if it’s not perfect, even if you know you’re gonna have to go back into it, type to the end. You have to have a little closure.

2. STRUCTURE

Structure means knowing where you’re going ; making sure you don’t meander about. Some great films have been made by meandering people, like Terrence Malick and Robert Altman, but it’s not as well done today and I don’t recommend it. I’m a structure nut. I actually make charts. Where are the jokes ? The thrills ? The romance ? Who knows what, and when ? You need these things to happen at the right times, and that’s what you build your structure around : the way you want your audience to feel. Charts, graphs, coloured pens, anything that means you don’t go in blind is useful.

3. HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY

This really should be number one. Even if you’re writing a Die Hard rip-off, have something to say about Die Hard rip-offs. The number of movies that are not about what they purport to be about is staggering. It’s rare, especially in genres, to find a movie with an idea and not just, ‘This’ll lead to many fine set-pieces’. The Island evolves into a car-chase movie, and the moments of joy are when they have clone moments and you say, ‘What does it feel like to be those guys ?’

4. EVERYBODY HAS A REASON TO LIVE

Everybody has a perspective. Everybody in your scene, including the thug flanking your bad guy, has a reason. They have their own voice, their own identity, their own history. If anyone speaks in such a way that they’re just setting up the next person’s lines, then you don’t get dialogue : you get soundbites. Not everybody has to be funny ; not everybody has to be cute ; not everybody has to be delightful, and not everybody has to speak, but if you don’t know who everybody is and why they’re there, why they’re feeling what they’re feeling and why they’re doing what they’re doing, then you’re in trouble.

5. CUT WHAT YOU LOVE

Here’s one trick that I learned early on. If something isn’t working, if you have a story that you’ve built and it’s blocked and you can’t figure it out, take your favourite scene, or your very best idea or set-piece, and cut it. It’s brutal, but sometimes inevitable. That thing may find its way back in, but cutting it is usually an enormously freeing exercise.

Find the final 6-10 here.






Enjoy!
Wilson W, Jr
OnceUponASketch

1,166

14 12 0
Joss Whedon is most famous for creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off Angel and the short-lived but much-loved Firefly series. But the writer and director has also worked unseen as a script doctor on movies ranging from Speed to Toy Story. Here, he shares his tips on the art of screenwriting.

These tips would apply to any form of storytelling. To tell a great story is to tell a great story.

Details

Stats

Submitted on
November 19, 2012
Submitted with
Sta.sh Writer
Views
1,166 (3 today)
Favourites
14 (who?)
Comments
12
URL
Thumb
Only verified accounts can report policy violations. Please check your email and click on the verification link.
* Required field
Add a Comment:
 
love 0 0 joy 1 1 wow 0 0 mad 0 0 sad 0 0 fear 0 0 neutral 0 0
:icongoldendruid:
=GoldenDruid Nov 27, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
Love it!
Reply
:iconwilsonwjr:
*WilsonWJr Nov 27, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
:)
Reply
:iconjalessiaj:
~JalessiaJ Nov 19, 2012  Professional Artist
Gotta love Joss Whedon. He's really for the fans whether it be for his stuff or Marvel's.
Reply
:iconwilsonwjr:
*WilsonWJr Nov 19, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
:)
Reply
:iconpagodacomics:
*PagodaComics Nov 19, 2012  Student General Artist
It was a really good reminder about many important things.
But I also had to stop at the "cut out what you like" part. I think.. I don't fully get it yet. Okay there WAS things I had to cut out because even though I liked it a LOT it just didn't fit. So I eventually decided to go with logic and kill it. Maybe that is it about, not just "whenever you are stuck, cut out your fav scenes", right..? Because I just can't imagine that would be a solution for every time I stuck. Anyway, i surely will keep it in mind.
Thanks for sharing =)
Reply
:iconwilsonwjr:
*WilsonWJr Nov 19, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
Not a problem. Check the post above to see what I thought he was saying about making the cut.
Reply
:iconpagodacomics:
*PagodaComics Nov 19, 2012  Student General Artist
Ooooh.. I see that makes sense and i defenitely consider next time I get stuck! *__*
Reply
:iconwilsonwjr:
*WilsonWJr Nov 19, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
:)
Reply
:iconjorioux:
~jorioux Nov 19, 2012  Professional
Insightful and interesting! I wish he had elaborated a bit more on the "cut what you love". The thought of doing that kind of gave me cold sweats, but I'll keep it in mind next time I'm stuck on something.
Reply
:iconwilsonwjr:
Mood: Joy *WilsonWJr Nov 19, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
I think he's saying that having that one thing you love may be blocking you from finding other ways to expand on what you are writing and stopping you from having the full breadth of possibilities. If you have one scene that you love! Then you stop yourself from having other ideas because they won't work with that one. If you take it out it opens up other options for you that scene , character, or object may have been blocking.

Plus I've often found that losing the one idea you thought was great usually means you find another that is even better!
Reply
Add a Comment: