Lauren Shuler Donner Quotes

I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue.

I have always argued, in a good novel, interesting things happen to interesting people.

I like to let the story flesh itself out, and usually, the characters make their own decisions as things get under way. Dialogue especially seems to write itself once I'm familiar with the characters and their backgrounds.

For me, the dialogue is the easiest part of writing. It just always seems so obvious what a character will say. Maybe it's because I talk too much!

If you know exactly what your character knows, it's a drama.

I can move my characters through it easily, because I understand the background; I've really studied it.

When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.

For me, screenwriting is all about setting characters in motion and as a writer just chasing them. They should tell you what they'll do in any scene you put them in.

For me, emotion comes first. If I have to change a scene, invent a scene, change dialogue, or put Graff by the lake in order to feel that dynamic, and the end results feels like 'Ender's Game,' then hopefully it works.

I tend to write one character at a time. But I don't write the entirety of one character at a time.

So I work hard to present the human side of my characters while not neglecting the plot.

The trick is to try and justify every word on the page and make sure my character is the man who would say that.

In judging other people's work, particularly short stories, I have noticed how novice writers tell the readers everything about their characters in the first paragraphs, disclose their motives, reveal their recent activities and their future intentions.

It's necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you're dealing with more than one or two characters, it's very easy to forget that the others have lives of their own that feed into the story.

One of the ways my first novel failed was that I was too in love with my characters.

Everything starts with what's on the page, what a writer has come up with. And whether it is a big studio film or independent film, is the story being well told? Is it interesting? Is the character interesting? And is there something about the character that may stretch me?

What I have to outline is action and plot because I'm not particularly good at that.

My only conclusion about structure is that nothing works if you don't have interesting characters and a good story to tell.

Variety of characters and themes bring out the best in me.

It always comes down to script and characters.

I think my sensibilities about storytelling and character just automatically come into play when I'm trying to work on any kind of narrative. For me, it doesn't really matter what the source of the narrative is. I will be looking for ways to make it into an intriguing story with empathetic characters.

Stories matter to me. I look for a good script, story, and a strong part.

A script writer usually manipulates his characters in accordance to the script.

I could make up characters till the cows came home. Plot's what hard. Very hard.

I may have a story idea but everything starts moving when I am able to see my characters clearly. They then organically lead or respond to the story or the universe I want to create.