Screenwriting 101: Lawrence Kasdan

“Anything I say about this now is influence by the changes in my process over the years. Looking again at some of my favorite films, and seeing that they’re simpler than I thought they were, has influenced my approach to the writing and directing of films. My initial response to them was that they were infinitely complex, that one image from Lawrence of Arabia (1962), say, conveys so many ideas. So when I started writing, I was trying to pack all those ideas in, to convey them to other people, because I wasn’t going to direct those films at that time. I’ve been writing screenplays now for twenty-five years, and it’s taken me all this time to see even a glint of where I should be heading, which is to aim for a certain simplicity and stop trying to pack the screenplay with as much as I can. On the other hand, that early approach served me very well in that the people who read the screenplays were able to see the mood very specifically and didn’t have to imagine that much. Sometimes, though, I think I’ve been too specific in the writing, and now I’m trying to fight that urge and be more open to possibilities and experiences.”

— Lawrence Kasdan

How They Write a Script

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