Screenwriting 101: Mike Mills

Reflections on the craft from the writer-director of “20th Century Women”.

“Usually, I find writing to be an ongoing process of failure. I’m like a World War One infantry unit. I just march forward every day and get shot down every day. You have to be comfortable failing seven times out of 10. Seven hours out of 10. And you have to do those seven hours to get those other three. Over years, that can be quite a dispiriting thing. I always get to this place where I say, ‘Oh, fuck. I can’t do this. I don’t know how to do this. I’m a fraud. And maybe I’ll get to do this one movie and it’ll probably be my last movie.’ That kind of mood is the only way I can finish the thing sometimes. Then, when I’m shooting, and with all these characters and these people, I’m the happiest, healthiest version of myself.”

— Mike Mills

Via “Written By” December/January 2016–2017