Scott Frank on the Writer’s Life

Wisdom about the craft from one of Hollywood’s top screenwriters whose film credits include Dead Again, Little Man Tate, Malice, Out of Sight, Minority Report, Marley & Me, and Logan.

One of the panels I attended at the 2017 Austin Film Festival featured Scott Frank. Moderated by Craig Mazin, Frank delved deep into his creative and writing process. I thumbed my way through copious notes on my iPhone and wrote up three blog posts reflecting on some of Frank’s more memorable quotes:

Part 1: “The first paragraph of a screenplay can tell you if they can write. The first five pages can tell you if they have a voice.”

Part 2: “It has to come from character. I’m always going back to the people. Why character? It’s about what makes a person a person. What do they want? What do they fear? It’s the low grade fever of what your characters are about. What is it that speaks to me? Is this a character I like?”

Part 3: “You can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader. You’re using words in your script and reading books feeds that. I read everything. Always learning how writers write.”

Frank is also a novelist (Shaker: A Novel) and earlier this year debuted the limited series “Godless” on Netflix which he wrote and directed. It’s excellent.

Below is an audio interview with Frank.

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