Screenwriting 101: Kenneth Lonergan

“I think rules are great if you’re in trouble, and if you’re not in any trouble with what you’re writing they’re absolutely useless, and possibly worse than useless. It may happen that every script has the characters established by page 10, and it may not. I don’t think there’s any reason to be thinking about that when you’re trying to write a script. It may be that every successful script has a reversal two thirds of the way through and another one a third of the way through, I don’t know. Every time I read a script and it goes off it’s because at that point the script is trying to be like a script. It’s at that exact moment when it loses its individuality and its interest.”

— Kenneth Lonergan

From his 2061 BAFTA Screenwriting Lecture.

To listen to his presentation, go here.