William Goldman was screenwriting legend. He won two Academy Awards writing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men. He adapted his own novels for both Marathon Man and Magic. And of course, wrote the novel and screenplay for The Princess Bride, which I could watch any day of the week.
He also wrote two non-fiction books about his experiences in Hollywood, Adventures in the Screen Trade and Which Lie Did I Tell? Both well worth a read.
A lot of writers are asked by publications to provide their top ten rules for writing. But, given Goldman’s incredible career and success, I think it’s worth reproducing his and, more importantly, doing our damndest as writers to follow them.
He included them in his book, Adventures in the Screen Trade and styled them as a modern Ten Commandments for writers:
- Thou shalt not take the crisis out of the protagonist’s hands.
- Thou shalt not make life easy for the protagonist.
- Thou shalt not give exposition for exposition’s sake.
- Thou shalt not use false mystery or cheap surprise.
- Thou shalt respect thy audience.
- Thou shalt know thy world as God knows this one.
- Thou shalt not complicate when complexity is better.
- Thou shalt seek the end of the line, taking characters to the farthest depth of the conflict imaginable within the story’s own realm of probability.
- Thou shalt not write on the nose — put a subtext under every text.
- Thou shalt rewrite.
AND, as an added bonus, here is the screenplay for All the President’s Men to read to see how it’s done.
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Image: Bernard Gotfryd
