{"id":1570,"date":"2008-10-30T20:22:41","date_gmt":"2008-10-30T20:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=1570"},"modified":"2021-07-30T21:16:27","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T21:16:27","slug":"einstein-and-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/einstein-and-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Einstein and Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AlbertEinstein

Here are five of my favorites.\u00a0 I’ve commented on them as they apply to the creative process and writing compelling stories.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 “A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.” <\/strong>What specifically are you trying to achieve in telling your story? What do you want your audience to feel?\u00a0 Who exactly is your audience?\u00a0 How well do you know them?\u00a0 Is your character’s emotional struggle well defined?\u00a0 How well does it reflect your audience’s struggle?\u00a0 Perfection of everything else (setting, acting, production values, etc.) is meaningless if you don’t know where your characters are headed.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0 “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” <\/strong> This is an ideology of humility and authenticity.\u00a0 You are here to serve the audience.\u00a0 Your story must add some kind of value to their day.\u00a0 What value are you adding to your audience?\u00a0 What is it that the audience needs and how are you filling that need.\u00a0 Too often we believe we are creating television shows or feature films for our own artistic fulfillment and satisfaction.\u00a0 In reality, we create to fulfill and satisfy our audiences.\u00a0 It is only when we are of real value to others that we find true success as artists.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0 “Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.” <\/strong>The buzz word these days is “edgy.”\u00a0 Often what is termed “edgy” is simply vulgar, inappropriate, crude, gross, aggressive or destructive. None of these things is truly edgy.\u00a0 It is quite common to encounter the gross, the vulgar or the destructive.\u00a0 In fact, what is riskiest, the most dangerous and what really pushes the envelope is– to simply tell the truth.\u00a0 Tell the truth about who you are and tell the truth about who your characters are.\u00a0 Nothing takes more courage.\u00a0 Nothing is as a daunting.\u00a0 Nothing is as surprising or as shocking.\u00a0 Nothing is more rare.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”<\/strong> Plots should be very simple.\u00a0 They should be clear and uncomplicated.\u00a0 You should be able to communicate the plot of your story in a few quick sentences. Fable, parables or fairytales stand the test of time because their plots are simple and easy to remember.\u00a0 The most memorable stories are very simple ones– but ones filled with deep, rich, complex emotions.
\n
\n5.\u00a0 “Most people say that it is intellect which makes a great scientist.<\/strong> They are wrong: it is character.”\u00a0 The same applies to writers and storytellers of all kinds.\u00a0 You cannot write authentic characters if you are not authentic yourself.\u00a0 You cannot write vulnerable characters unless you make yourself vulnerable first.\u00a0 You cannot write from the heart unless you are generous and open up your own heart.\u00a0 The character of the writer to a large extent determines the quality of the writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

#ThinkpieceThursday – Einsten’s concise quotes are invaluable and timeless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,128,78],"tags":[25,26,461,27,28,30,31,32,33,115,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42],"class_list":["post-1570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-thoughts-pop-culture-political-movie-television-blog","category-thinkpiece-thursday","category-writing-tips-tricks-advice-help-script-screenplay-screenwriting-blog","tag-character","tag-characters","tag-einstein","tag-emotional-toolbox","tag-etb","tag-film","tag-films","tag-laurie-hutzler","tag-movies","tag-musings","tag-nine-character-types","tag-screenplay","tag-screenplays","tag-screenwriting","tag-script","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-tv","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"ttshowcase_normal":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",125,94,false],"ttshowcase_small":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",75,56,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"Image Size 500x500":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",500,375,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x400.jpg",300,400,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-600x450.jpg",600,450,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurie Hutzler","author_link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"#ThinkpieceThursday - Einsten's concise quotes are invaluable and timeless.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}