Here's the standard learning curve for new writers: 1- There are rules? 2- Fuck the rules! 3- I guess I'd better learn the rules. 4- I understand the rules. 5- The rules aren't helpful to me anymore. 6- Fuck the rules! 7- C'mere kid, let me teach you the rules. - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

barrsteve.bsky.social • 17 hours ago

Here's the standard learning curve for new writers:

1- There are rules?
2- Fuck the rules!
3- I guess I'd better learn the rules.
4- I understand the rules.
5- The rules aren't helpful to me anymore.
6- Fuck the rules!
7- C'mere kid, let me teach you the rules.

Comments

barrsteve.bsky.social•17 hours ago

Lots of writers think they're at stage 6 when they're really only at stage 2. But you don't start working at a professional level of craft until you've learned all the rules and internalized what they are and why they exist ... and then can break them on purpose rather than out of ignorance.

barrsteve.bsky.social•17 hours ago

If you want to break the rules, that's fine. But you should understand why the "rule" exists in the first place, so you aren't just falling into the same tired old traps that the rules are trying to help you avoid.

graynewt.bsky.social•17 hours ago

I would add that you should break them for narrative reasons, not just to do it. As a prof and a workshop lead I've seen too many beginners break rules because they want the script to stand out for selling or because they want to be seen as iconoclasts. That's their prerogative but it's shallow.

barrsteve.bsky.social•17 hours ago

Agreed. When I was starting out, I'd break a rule intentionally just to see if I could muscle my way past it. Passive protagonist, unclear tones, genre jumping, show-don't-tell etc.

In almost every case the scripts were bad in exactly the way those rules were created to avoid.

graynewt.bsky.social•16 hours ago

Totally. And I would guess that nowadays, with artistic maturation, you could make any of those rule breaks work if they were useful. I tell beginners, especially college kids, to avoid passive protagonists *at their level*. Not because passive protag is "wrong", just really challenging.

petewrites.bsky.social•2 hours ago

Episode 186 of Scriptnotes podcast (Craig Mazin and John August) episode title: 'the paradox of the outlier' really address the 'rules' really well.

cheriegrant.bsky.social•17 hours ago

Lol sounds about right.

theartofcharts.bsky.social•17 hours ago

Hmmm :) Kind of the screenwriters' version of the Dunning Kruger effect.