20 Screenwriting Tips from Aaron Sorkin

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Aaron Sorkin is an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. Born in New York City, Sorkin developed a passion for writing at an early age. His works include the Broadway plays A Few Good Men, and To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as the television series Sports Night (1998-2000), The West Wing (1999-2006), Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006-07), and The Newsroom (2012-14). He wrote the film screenplay for the legal drama A Few Good Men (1992), the comedy The American President (1995), and several biopics including Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Moneyball (2011), and Steve Jobs (2015). For writing 2010's The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.
0:00 - Intro
1:21 - To write a great villain, don’t think of them as a villain. Don’t judge the character, try and empathize with them.
2:32 - Think of writing dialogue in musical terms.
4:17 - Parachute the audience into a story that’s already going 60 miles an hour. Have it running ahead of them and make them catch up.
5:53 - The first thing you need in your screenplay is an intention and an obstacle.
7:00 - Compress time and space to make the film feel a little claustrophobic or play-like.
8:14 - The properties of people and the properties of character have nothing to do with each other.
8:44 - Films shouldn’t be just journalism or a Wikipedia page shot nicely. They ought to be subjective.
9:47 - Start writing by eavesdropping on a conversation and think about what was the beginning of that conversation.
10:51 - There’s no such thing as an interesting character who doesn’t have
A conscience.
11:38 - Give yourself a leave. When you finish writing for the day, you need to leave at a place where you will know what you’re going to be writing when you get up the next day.
12:06 - After your first draft when you discover what the movie is about, go back to the beginning, set up the ending and peel away the things that don’t have anything to do with it.
12:45 - Take multiple showers throughout the day to get back to writing feeling refreshed.
14:06 - Imitate real life.
14:53 - Avoid stereotypes not because of your fear of being offensive, avoid them because stereotypes are bad writing.
16:36 - There are rules. They were written over 2000 years ago by Aristotle.
16:54 - It’s not always important what your characters are talking about. Sometimes it’s important that your audience thinks the characters know what they’re talking about.
17:40 - Become a great audience member. Always analyze why you like or dislike a movie.
18:41 - Speak your dialogue out loud - that way you will know if it is speakable for an actor.
19:47 - Show the audience what the character wants. That want and what they do to get it is going to define who they are.
20:53 - Just like playing the violin, writing simply takes practice.
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[@whatchrisdoinmusic]

I love how open he is about the process in detail and also how he acknowledges that everyone has a different style and voice for writing. That is the beauty of it all

[@ARKHAMxMaverick]

His Master Class was very informative. He can't hold back his passion for writing.

[@theexpresidents]

Couldn't agree more. Watched his Masterclass twice, along with David Mamet's.

[@theexpresidents]

Excellent compilation: thank you for this

[@KentMLewis]

Loved this! Good stuff, and well presented!

[@AndieNow]

I resonate so much with his writing.

[@karenmink865]

Musical rules apply I love that He's so modest

[@factoryofdivisiveopinions]

Can you please do one about gillian flynn too? Please! The writing in gone girl alone is good enough to peek curiosity on her style.

[@bramtabachnick8701]

pique

[@michaelcohen4513]

I like #18 - write how people speak. Famously in Star Wars, Harisson Ford said to Lucas "you can write this, you can't say it"

[@jayashreechakravarthy4949]

My rage show!!

[@NormalDennis]

"Make every sentence said by every character insufferably gay." - Sorkin

[@ulrikegerlach6058]

🤩👍👏👏👏

[@lynnturman8157]

For somebody who is mainly known for his great dialogue, I think he is also great at structure. SOCIAL NETWORK and BEING THE RICARDOS are two movies that have great endings, IMO. And they're both practically dialogue free.

[@davelowinger7056]

Hey Aaron you know as a fan people say that you write highbrow stuff which I appreciate. But do you ever think about writing us the loan movie and I happen to have an idea the government is taking your vehicle if you have a gas vehicle they're not shutting down gas stations they're just taking vehicles from people because they think they can do better they could have had an electric car and they bought a gas car so the government just goes and takes that car from those people but they still leave open the gas stations cuz they say that not everybody can but it's a Stallone Style movie but done in a highbrow way hope you don't take that wrong

[@davelowinger7056]

You know I know this is asking Aaron to write a little more like Steven King. But actually I think that's why he would be the good writer for it it's because he wouldn't write it that way in the way it plays in my head like a Steven King kind of you know governments trying to make the world a better place by threatening people with taking their vehicles and stuff to make them buy better cars which is a little leaning on you know leaned into that area

[@davelowinger7056]

Like the pretty Republican girl in the basement but Stallone Style

[@davelowinger7056]

It's Stephen King part would be the fact that you would not know how the law became effect it would be about the people who enforced it like the the police would have to take in a certain area 10 cars a month because that's what how they could afford to take it and the government decided to take these cars that were gas powered cars from these people to encourage all the other people to buy better vehicles and they just figured on the numbers that in this way we can enforce. It would be about the people that it affected one way and the other way that's what kind of makes it kind of Steve bikinis but if it was written in a highbrow way I think it would come off good

[@prabhanjanma6988]

He moves his lips like joker from TDK..

[@Statford]

Sorkin is my all-time favourite storyteller! I do however completely disagree with his first advice; empathise with the villain, don`t judge the character. Whereas that will work in many fictional movies and "normal" characters just being human beings but nevertheless being the villain, it does not work for truly evil villains. Hannibal Lecter, possibly the greatest villain of all time, I have no empathy for. I truly judge him, and do not have an ounce of empathy for him. To say that you can`t judge him, and to find empathy for him when you write him, means you do not understand true evil. So, important to have context when taking this advice from Sorkin to heart.

[@Statford]

@@sohndustinAnd what was his motivation for attacking the nurse and eating her tongue? Something noble I bet? Killing nine people and eating parts of them, seems like a cool guy. That makes a lot of sense...

[@Statford]

@@sohndustin I see, I must have imagined seeing the nurse attack in "Hannibal" then...I am sure that scene is removed from the film now....

[@Statford]

@@sohndustin So your theory only holds water if we forget about one of the movies in the series, because you didn`t "like" it? That makes a lot of sense...

[@blakegiersch4970]

Somebody tell Rian Johnson about treating the audience with respect and not thinking their stupid lol

[@canaisyoung3601]

He wouldn't be able to hear it over rhe sound of him laughing all the way to the bank.

[@blakegiersch4970]

@@canaisyoung3601 he can have all that money but he won’t have the respect he thinks he should have.

[@theexpresidents]

@@blakegiersch4970 I agree. Rian isn't Aaron.

[@FranticAnimations]

@@blakegiersch4970 Lots of people who aren't weirdo Star Wars fanboys respect him.

[@blakegiersch4970]

@@FranticAnimations not a fanboy, knives out was mediocre. Loopers his best movie and his work on breaking bad was great.

[@eljefe1892]

disagree with #6

[@CM-rg9zg]

So he doesn’t think Trump has a conscience. Wow