Writing advice from YOU!
A few weeks back, I asked this question: What is the single best writing tip you know? Here are your answers:
JamesHutchinson said…
FINISH.
Foley said…
The best tip I’ve got is also the hardest to follow: If something you’ve written isn’t serving the story, no matter how entertaining/well-written/all-around awesome it is, it’s got to go.
Amos said…
Along the lines of James’, the best writing advice I’ve ever gotten is: WRITE.
James said…
Ties for both BEST and MOST infuriating writing advice ever:
KEEP WRITING.
. said…
Write every day, if possible, for several decades or more. Writing one anything is nice, writing a great many somethings is laudable.
Tom said…
Get your butt in a seat.
Jeffrey said…
This mantra from a certain Scott Myers literally saved my life:
“The only way out is through.”
(note: can be applied to many non-writing aspects of life as well)
Mike said…
Allow yourself to suck, and finish that first draft.
Annika W said…
Keep off the dang Internet when you should be writing pages.
Alec said…
Never be your own critic. We always over or underestimate our own writing abilities, especially in the beginning. And don’t ask mom either.
Tavis Sarmento said…
David Mamet: “Never be boring.”
Earl said…
I actually heard this advice from a GITS article, I have forgotten who it was from but it was amazing. It was something like “When people say your story is not working for them pay attention, but don’t think for a second they know how to fix the problem”
The Z said…
A writer is like a shark — if a shark stops swimming it dies. If a writer stops writing, well, 1) they’re not a writer and 2) they die.
Just keep writing.
Matt Bird said…
Story-wise, this is the one I have to remind myself of most often:
SOMEONE HAS TO BE OPPOSED TO WHAT THE HERO IS DOING.
Movies are drama. Drama is human conflict. Opposition creates meaning. Opposition is, in fact, the only source of meaning in life. A heroic endeavor without opposition is meaningless.
Teddy Pasternak said…
Write for yourself. Write a movie that you’d like to see on the big screen. Don’t try to follow trends and please others. Find your voice. Find you. Stay true to who you are and what makes you unique. Don’t wake up twenty years down the line and realize you’ve been chasing someone else’s dream. Picture yourself not making it. What would you rather leave behind? Some scripts that tried to impress some douchefuck Hollywood producer, or something that actually means something? Show us who you are, not who you think others would like you to be. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Otherwise, why bother. And don’t waste time. Life is short. Start now.
Nick West said…
I’ll add my voice to, “finish the first draft.”
Completing something, and then re-writing, is what separates the pretenders from the real alcoholics.
I mean, “writers.”
Christian H. said…
Write for the director and the actors and BE the cinematographer.
John said…
Per Rossio, Elliott and Ellis: going in, the job description is simple: create interest.
Do this with every concept, every story, every situation, scene, line, word and…image.
And always be mindful that you’re not creating a conversation….
You’re creating an experience.
Here are some via Twitter:
“Write”.
— @chinnamama
“take time to develop the story b4 u start writing the first draft.”
— @iluvtap
“Lie about anything except emotions.”
— @MhairiMcF
“Finish before you tinker.”
— @andydiggle
“Writing is rewriting.”
— @princess_scribe
Five479 said…
Write, write and rewrite. And then submit that finished screenplay into a contest. Say for example, the Slamdance Screenwriting Competition.
Steve Axelrod said…
W. Somerset Maugham: “If it should occur to you tom cut something, do so.”
Ines Häufler said…
“Simple story, complex characters.”
Kristy @ MSP said…
While you are sitting around talking about writing online and thinking about starting to write, someone, somewhere IS writing.
A point of my own procrastination sometimes. I have to remind myself this all the time.
yyyyyyyyy said…
from Baby Bones
My screenwriter friend once said to me, “Make sure your audience can feel it when the story has reached a turning point.”
He went on to lament that the turning points in screenplays he was commissioned to write were invariably accompanied by explosions and gunfire.
DiogoF. said…
Keep writing.
Story is conflict.
Josh K-sky said…
Crap can be fixed. Blank pages can’t.
May you find inspiration from these words of wisdom from the GITS community.