2. #1: WOODY ALLEN
Start with a strong title, and go from there
Woody Allen loved the title โMidnight in Parisโ but he couldn't DECIDE
what would happen to his character at midnight. Once he FIGURED that
out, the rest came easily. You have to lay the groundwork first, and then
the fun begins.
3. #2: DIABLO CODY
Use flashbacks sparingly, but correctly
When Diablo Cody set out to WRITE โJuno,โ she had just one scene in
mind -- one where a pregnant teenager interviews parents who might
adopt her baby. She took that one scene and CREATED a whole story
around it.
4. #3: J.J. ABRAMS
Take a great "What if" question & explore answers to it
Lloyd Braun, the chairman of ABC, was on vacation watching โCastAwayโ
when he came up with an idea for โLost.โ It started with a series of
questions: What if a group of strangers survived a plane crash? How would
you REINVENT yourself in a world where your past didn't matter? He got
JJ Abrams to WRITE a pilot and the process took off from there.
5. #4: CAMERON CROWE
Write what you know
Cameron Crowe PENNED two screenplays by writing about his real life
experiences. His tales of the rock world while working for โRolling Stoneโ
would inspire โAlmost Famousโ and his social-experiment posing as a high
school student for a second senior year would become โFast Times at
Ridgemont High.โ
6. #5: QUENTIN TARANTINO
Borrow and be inspired by other's work
Quentin Tarantino is known for REFERENCING and playing homage to
the films that inspire his later work. Tarantino GIVES credit to
approximately 80 different films that INSPIRED his classic film, Kill Bill.
(Including most of the Bruce Lee canon.)
7. #6: CHARLIE KAUFMAN
Write everything down and see what you get
Spike Jonze was inspired by Charlie Kaufman's approach to writing
Synecdoche, New York: "On Synecdoche, New York, which I was originally
going to direct, [Kaufman] said he wanted to try to write everything he was
thinking about in that moment โ all the ideas and feelings at that time โ
and put it into the script."
8. #7: SPIKE JONZE
Use flashbacks sparingly, but correctly
Spike Jonze got the idea for โHerโ when he READ an article about a
website that allowed users to chat-online with an A.I. He BOUNCED the
idea around for many years and eventually came up with the story that
would become โHer.โ
9. #8: AARON SORKIN
Wing it and see what you come up with under
pressure
Aaron Sorkin THOUGHT he was just having lunch with a TV producer but
when he got there, realized the group of producers and agents were
expecting a full-fledged show pitch. BORROWING from ideas he'd
explored in โThe American President,โ he blurted out an idea that would
become โThe West Wing.โ
10. #9: SHONDA RHIMES
Use flashbacks sparingly, but correctly
Shonda Rhimes SUMMED it up best in her Dartmouth Commencement
Address, "Perfect is boring and dreams are not real. So you think, 'I wish I
could travel.' Great. SELL your crappy car, BUY a ticket to Bangkok, and
go. Right now. Iโm serious. You want to be a writer? A writer is someone
who WRITES every day, so start writing."
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