Final part of Charlie Brooker's interviews with great writers




My notes on this section:

• 2nd and 3rd drafts are much easier. The first is the hardest. Some people do 20 drafts!
• A lot of what you write will be binned, but you have to ignore that.
• You have to re-write and re-write. You're honing it each time and making it sharper each time. 
• People don't seem to like writing!

Watching this reminded me of a great quote by Steven King. He said that 'with the first draft you are telling yourself the story, with the second, you are telling others'. Now I'm paraphrasing here - I don't know his quote directly, but it was a very useful thing to hear.

Part 4 of Charlie Brooker's interview with top screenwriters





My notes from this clip:

• Avoid exposition in dialogue - "i'd rather be confused for 10 minutes than bored for 5 seconds"
• If you want to see an example of goos stage direction, read the screenplay for Ultimate Force. I tried to find a link to it, but couldn't! Might want to try the script for Lethal weapon
• Action direction is important, but don't make it lengthy. The action directions should be as exciting as the story.

More tips from some famous writers!






My notes from this clip:

• How do you avoid cliches for stock characters? Well, sometimes cliches are great because they are funny.
• When creating characters you can base each character of 3 or 4 people. Usually people you know, but you can base them on actors 
• Once you pick an actor that matches a character perfectly, you can read with lots of other actors to see who gels. [They did this on Twilight after casting Kristen Stewart.]
• A technique for writing dialogue is to write it, then keep removing words. As long as it still makes sense, remove dialogue until it is as tight as it can be

More advice from top writers.

Lessons learnt from this clip:

• Many writers have long periods of not completing anything!
• Some need external discipline to make sure they have written.
• People take things that they find funny/interesting and twist them to use them in a new way. 
• Some people (like me) are very structured, others (talented bastards) can make it up as they go along, but most DO have a rough structure in their heads. 
• The first draft can be just a bunch of notes that needs to be re-done

Some great screenwriting advice, all hosted by the creator of Black Mirror, the one and only Charlie Brooker!