Writing a screenplay is like writing a big puzzle, and so the hardest part, I think, is getting the story.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It's hard writing screenplays.
I always find the first thing that really bothers me when I start a screenplay is, I have to find a different form. You can't follow the form of the novel. It's a different thing completely. It's impossible. You just somehow have to find a structure for the whole thing. You have to crack that.
If you're writing a novel, you can afford to see where the spirit takes you, but in terms of structure and engineering with a screenplay, you have to be quite pragmatic; otherwise, it will run away from you.
I've been writing screenplays for a long time, and a lot of it came out of the journalism I was doing.
I actually think I'm probably more interested in structure than most people who write screenplays, because I think about it.
I didn't know anything about writing a screenplay, but somehow I ended up rewriting a screenplay.
Really, when I write a book I'm the only one I have to please. That's the beauty of writing a book instead of a screenplay.
Writing film scripts is the hardest thing in the world. A script has to go to five or six drafts, and you need the feedback of other people and to keep coming back with a fresh eye, honing it down.
The hardest thing about writing a script is you finish it, but it doesn't mean anything. It's not like a novel or short story - a script is meant to be made into a movie.
The way you write a screenplay is that you close your eyes and run the movie in your head and then you write it down.