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Hello, Glenn. I'm involves in a short documentary film project and I learned that a good documentary also has a story. Can you tell us what's different about documentary stories and how to make them more interesting? I'm worry that just presenting interviews and footage will bore the audience. I know you once said you couldn't answer about short films and documentaries, but maybe you could give an opinion as an observer. Thank you in advance.

Back to this video after years. Thank you. It's really help.

I always back to your channel when I get stuck with my script and it's always help. Thank you for your videos.

Thank you.

That's why I admire you, Glenn. What a helpful and beautiful rant!💖

Thank you, Glenn! What an inspiring session. I agree with you on your take on success, as you explained in level #1 and level #2. I too am working daily on a book and as it is (slowly) taking shape and becoming a real thing, I've wanted to clearly define my true, deep-down hopes for it. I can't be sure this will ever happen, or even if it does I will hear about it, but if there is at least one reader who enjoys the story, puts it down, and at some later time comes back and rereads it and enjoys it just as much the second time, that would be like an "A+" on a test, something that would be richly satisfying for me.

hi, glenn. Thanks a lot for the vid. It is always so helpful to hear your thoughts on any given subject. Pure wisdom :D

Timing: your own and the universe's might not be in sync. Some people give themselves a success deadline - "if I don't make it by the time I'm 30, I'll quit" - but you can't force the timing. If you really love your art you're cheating yourself and others who might also love it if you quit too soon. Hang in and keep making good work. You might get what you want. And even if you don't, you'll have the work. If you quit, you've got nothing.

What a live session, this was a good one! Thank you, Glenn.

Thank you, this is what I really needed to hear

On the metro in Paris, a young lady was reciting existential poetry. A hat was passed around. I was told art is a noble profession in Europe. In America, we look down on street performers, only admiring artist who make tons of money.

Thank you

Hello Glenn I came back to your PROGRESS REPORT N. 1 to see how you did start this novel that is now getting finished and I have a question : in this first video you talk about the whole story in vivid details in, the full sequence from start to finish, you even have the last sentence in! So this was not starting from a blank slate. Can you talk sometimes about all the steps you took, before the first step? The idea, the research, the characters, the sequence, the software... Did you "just knew" or did you slowly build it over time, and how...

i heard dean koontz had his wife tie him to a chair with rope so that he could better know how to write a scene about his mc escaping the same, i cant help but think creating at least one painting yourself would provide a lot of tactile, visceral experience to draw on for your novel. i love the novel streams, they help me so much, i identify with nearly all your foibles & adventures, sir! Hope to catch the next one live, best to you

hahaha...Asia's top film school taught me no flashback and I am phobic to it while writing till date.

Oh I've missed listening to you Glenn as I have been so busy too! I loved to listen your 'real' experience of doing all this for your novel. Super fascinating! So original to be excited about 'wrong' things. I love that. Maybe you could ask Poe or Chat about changing your narrator's voice?? Feed in some excerpts perhaps. Then make it personal to how you feel. I find I can get some really good ideas about different things I am stuck on using AI like using another 'brain'!

Love this!!! Thank you!

Hi Glenn! Have you read The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary? Very different story from yours but I mention it because an artist friend of mine said that he found the description of the artist's creative process to be realistic. There was a movie made of the novel, starring Alec Guiness, but you miss out on his character's internal dialogue.

Thank you!

This was immensely helpful. Thank you so much for sharing.

So glad I found your channel. Lots of helpful information. And thank you for ending every video with a reminder to get off CZcams and write like I was supposed to be doing. :)

The ending is where the story starts it’s just like the bus or train as we know that both of their journeys began at the station and ended, The bus = story Driver = protagonist Passengers= audiences

How rude of you. Mamet is "problematic"? Because he doesnt think like you and your gang? Who the hell are you, anyway?

I want to say that I appreciate you showing us the bloopers at the end of these videos. It emphasizes the idea you express that nothing will be perfect the first time around and that we need to embrace our failures in order to make progress. Leading by example: I respect that :) Your content is also high quality and I appreciate that as well. Thank you for your work.

May the fourth be with you!

Thanks! Happy Independence Day!

Thanks for letting us know:)

Happy 4th!!! 🎆

It seems what you might be saying is there are things you do well bc you have a lot of experience in learning the craft, and things you aren't doing as well as you wish just yet, bc you have much less experience in that area of craft. Screenplays are essentially about 98% dialogue and action, give or take. Often there is no narrative whatsoever (though rare things like Dexter or Mr. Robot are about 10% VO narrative). Novels are often ~75% dialogue and action and ~25% narrative. There is a certain level of skill needed to do any of the three properly. The line-by-line structure in narrative is very important in prose, as is the ability to create the proper flow and pacing (things usually handled by actors, editors, and directors in film). Transitional structure is also something more difficult in prose than it is in a screenplay. All four things are suites of similar yet different skills. So you've ventured into a world where you know part of what to do pretty well, but are not yet as sure of what else you need to do. Experience in screenwriting is an excellent head start on developing the ability to write a novel, since it nails 2 of the 4. So maybe the thing to do, which it appears you may be doing, is to concentrate on what you haven't developed your craft in yet. This is what worked for me, although when I began writing novels, I had no real developed skill in dialogue, action, narrative, or transitional structure (I had a knack for the first three but structure was the hardest to learn). I could knock out scenes of any kind fairly effortlessly from day one (though I cringe to look at those first drafts). But about 14 months in it became obvious I knew little about structure, so that has been one primary focus of mine for the last 8 years, and hopefully, I have caught up. But I think that's the secret to success in art-focus more on what you are least good at, until you're good at everything.

I haven't seen a lot of movies, I kinda suck at it, but isn't the entire point in RRR to overdo everything? Like they overdo the freaking credits screen and throw an entire musical in there. Sorry, I know these streams are old, I just loved RRR and there was a person that commented on it in the stream. Triggered, my bad. BTW, these are great, tyvm. Even watching them delayed, it's like having a chat with a smart and interesting friend, and those get harder and harder to find IRL the older you get. (Bad English, because not native. Apologies).

[9:20] Whilst there may be empathy to be had, when a character such as Reacher, in Reacher season 02, is rendered as a psycho-killer in the lead of a team of psycho-killers, of psycho-killers, it's tough sledding -- for me, at any rate -- to feel the sympathy of likeability :-) The same applies to Michael Clayton, and True Detective season 02 . . . Your mileage may vary :-)

Thanks for the inspiration to work through the boredom stage Glenn and for all the inspiring writers on the live stream. Got the first draft completed today on my usual 30 day challenge. Almost gave up but got it done. Now setting it aside and will come back to it later and work on something new. ❤😊

This series is excellent. This one in particular holds great advice. Thank you, Glenn.

For me, one of the best live videos I've seen here. Thanks. The first 30 minutes could also be used as three “10 minute learning videos”.

Inspiration, then the slog thru the jungle of constructing a rough draft, shifting into the 'pain' of details (craft/routine), then onto the push to the filling the gaps, eventually crossing a 'finish line' of a 'real first draft'. .... then, the serious work of editing and a second draft.... I did not understand how hard writing novel would be. Your honesty and openness on this are appreciated.

Hearing you explain the steps you take - your process - is reassuring. It takes time and effort. Thank you.

About historical/factual accuracy: I’m writing sci-fi. The story takes place mostly inside the human solar solar system and the characters travel several times between Earth, Mars and the Asteroid Belt. For the sake of story pace/time-frame I decided to ignore the fact, that the planets in our solar system move, so I wouldn’t have to calculate where each celestial body is during the entire story and the travel time between Earth and Mars is always the same (and not suddenly significantly longer if Mars happens to be on the other side of the sun at the time). I think I can get away with that obvious inaccuracy because otherwise I would bore myself and the reader to death with endless calculations and explanations about why the characters reach their destination at different times at different days. On the other hand, I was always bothered with how Captain Kirk’s Enterprise can make it from Earth to Nimbus III and then to the Center of the Galaxy in just a few hours while Captain Janeway’s Voyager is hopelessly strolling through the Delta Quadrant for several years with no hope in sight but for the use of a Borg “deus-ex-machina” solution. It’s all about balance and consistency. Once a decision on a made-up fact is made, it’s okay IF you stick with it and don’t change the established lore/world as you please later on for no obvious/plausible reason.

I studied mathematics and what you describe is a very familiar feeling. Once you figured out how to solve a problem you have to do all the busywork of writing down equations and do a bunch of algebra and stuff. Still haven't solved the problem. Don't know the result yet. But you know you can solve it so all the excitement is gone.

Really appreciate your candor as always, Glenn. Thanks.

Makes these videos with movie or tv clips as examples and your channel will blow up

And note this in the outline

ok, but let's address the important questions: what is the ice cream cone in the back (a lamp?) and where do I get one?

I like you

Why doesn't Hollywood hire such sophisticated screenwriters like you any longer? Because you guys are expensive? No wonder movies nowadays mostly suck.

Maybe there are two poles: The bureaucrat and the artist. The bureaucrat will only make a judgement call when instructed to do so by the process, and then always choose the option least likely to cause problems. The artist will randomly follow or not follow the process and happy accidents are expected as a side effect of all the blunders. Of course all real people are in between.

This is really Educating

Great stuff, Glenn! Thank you for taking the time to share your excellent insight.

This is so good! Thank you! I love this knowledge and wisdom only long experience can provide.

Wow, where were you? Why I haven`t seen this before? How come so few people? Really cool. Cheers !

It's such a pleasure learning about others' organizations for how they write. For me, I can't stand outlining nor do I really need it. I keep that part all in my head with intimate knowledge of the world I'm inhabiting through my thoughts. Once my hands hit the keyboard, they don't stop until life slaps me in the face with responsibilities. Once done, I go over the entire novel and massage it in sections, first through dialog, then details and punctuation. My brain works in strange ways and so far it seems to be serving me well. It's such a long and arduous process but it's a piece of art one can fiddle with for as long as they want and I love every part of it :)