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Aaron Sorkin is an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. Born in New York City, Sorkin developed a passion for writing at an early age. His works include the Broadway plays A Few Good Men, and To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as the television series Sports Night (1998–2000), The West Wing (1999–2006), Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–07), and The Newsroom (2012–14). He wrote the film screenplay for the legal drama A Few Good Men (1992), the comedy The American President (1995), and several biopics including Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Moneyball (2011), and Steve Jobs (2015). For writing 2010's The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.

0:00 Intro

1:21 To write a great villain, don’t think of them as a villain. Don’t judge the character, try and empathize with them.

2:32 Think of writing dialogue in musical terms.

4:17 Parachute the audience into a story that’s already going 60 miles an hour. Have it running ahead of them and make them catch up.

5:53 The first thing you need in your screenplay is an intention and an obstacle.

7:00 Compress time and space to make the film feel a little claustrophobic or playlike.

8:14 The properties of people and the properties of character have nothing to do with each other.

8:44 Films shouldn’t be just journalism or a Wikipedia page shot nicely. They ought to be subjective.

9:47 Start writing by eavesdropping on a conversation and think about what was the beginning of that conversation.

10:51 There’s no such thing as an interesting character who doesn’t have
A conscience.

11:38 Give yourself a leave. When you finish writing for the day, you need to leave at a place where you will know what you’re going to be writing when you get up the next day.

12:06 After your first draft when you discover what the movie is about, go back to the beginning, set up the ending and peel away the things that don’t have anything to do with it.

12:45 Take multiple showers throughout the day to get back to writing feeling refreshed.

14:06 Imitate real life.

14:53 Avoid stereotypes not because of your fear of being offensive, avoid them because stereotypes are bad writing.

16:36 There are rules. They were written over 2000 years ago by Aristotle.

16:54 It’s not always important what your characters are talking about. Sometimes it’s important that your audience thinks the characters know what they’re talking about.

17:40 Become a great audience member. Always analyze why you like or dislike a movie.

18:41 Speak your dialogue out loud that way you will know if it is speakable for an actor.

19:47 Show the audience what the character wants. That want and what they do to get it is going to define who they are.

20:53 Just like playing the violin, writing simply takes practice.


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