Writing Tip From Gary Ross

I wasn't at the Zaki Gordon series to hear Ross speak, but word from Phil is that he talked about the nuts and bolts of writing. Nice. He asked the audience, "How many of you have written a screenplay where the protagonist is you and he/she is too passive?" Almost everyone raised their hands. Funny.

A tip: When stuck write scenes that will NOT be in the movie. This will liberate you from the idea that a story or movie is a puzzle to be solved. It isn't. It is something to be created.

I like this idea a lot. Tomorrow, I will be doing this, writing scenes for my feature between characters that aren't designed to be in the film.