I’m finally learning how to write a cinematic movie. It took me over ten years to figure out the process. Many teachers, books, a $20,000 Writers Boot Camp education (which was for the most part, a lemon) but barely a crack of illumination into a process that works for me.
Everyone asked me to write a perfect premise line, a perfect treatment, a perfect outline. I had to have an inciting incident, a midpoint crisis and a misbehavior. I had to have an inner and outer goal and I had to describe it in the most pithy way. It drove me fucking crazy and in the meantime, too many people have surpassed me while I was listening to the noise that drowned out the voice of my instincts.
It’s simple – a beginning, a middle and an end. Tell the story. Respect the details and the logic of the story. Be cinematic. Let our characters live their real lives.
Don’t listen to the experts, don’t listen to me. Listen to your instincts and just write.
