LA Screenwriter

E.B. White wrote that there are “no inflexible rules by which the young writer may steer his course. He will often find himself steering by stars that are disturbingly in motion.” With this in mind, we’ve asked working screenwriters to share a list of the “un-rules” that they find most helpful in their writing careers.

We have a new list of “un-rules” today from Rob Edwards, the scribe behind the animated features Treasure Planet and The Princess and the Frog. Rob was also a consultant on Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen. He was kind enough to speak to us a few months back about the particular challenges of writing animated features, and we’re thrilled to now have Rob’s top five un-rules.

If you’re in the LA area, Rob will be giving a master class entitled The 5 Keystones to Great Screenwriting this weekend (March 8-9). The intensive weekend course is designed for any level of writer who wants to be able to quickly identify a story’s 5 Keystones and write dynamic scripts using this industry standard. Learn more and register here.

Without further ado, here are Rob’s five un-rules:

1. BE A REAL PERSON. Ultimately whether we’re writing highly formatted screenplays or sitting around campfires spinning yarns, we are storytellers, pure and simple. Our jobs are to take the emotions we feel and the information we know and weave them into entertaining tapestries that will be loved and adored by millions. If you don’t love movies passionately, feel anything deeply or know anything interesting, you’re going to have a tough road ahead of you. It’s easier to make movies people will love if you, yourself, are a great lover of movies. It’s easier to write moments that will touch people if you are a bit of a sap. Put yourself in the movie theatre with a box of popcorn and an Icee and ask yourself what you want to see up on the screen. What kinds of opening sequences do you like? What kinds of protagonists? What kinds of villains? And then write that and only that. The things that excite and entertain you will become the colors you’ll use to paint your cinematic tapestries, but you can only do that if you know who you are as a person first.

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