Okay, for posterity’s sake (and for anyone interested), I’m putting some of my own thoughts and experiences on screenwriting into a post. Feel free to skip this if screenwriting doesn’t interest you.

I had a good mentor when it came to writing scripts. He was good in that he didn’t force me to join up with some specific class in a college on some obscure topic, or didn’t try to imprint his own style of writing on me. What he did do was give me some of the most sage advice I had ever heard:

1. “No screenplay is written in stone.” — Try to understand that a screenplay, unlike other written works, is an evolving animal throughout the production process. Be flexible and open to the ideas of others on the film’s team, and don’t be offended if something has to be removed. There’s usually a very good justification for it and they will tell you why and what it is.

2. “Start at the beginning, write to the middle, then write to the end.” — Granted, some writers will write the middle of the story and work out, or write the end and work backwards, but the essence of this advice is to write until it is done. So many writers will get the first 10 pages out then stop for one reason or another. It is important to not stop and get it done. I was stuck at a particular point in one of my own scripts and I called my mentor up asking him about this. That one line just struck me like lightning. “Of course,” I thought. How could I have not seen it?

Almost everything else I know about screenwriting has been derived from those 2 nuggets of wisdom. I’m not saying that you should take my own words as holy writ, but give it some thought.