Aaron Sorkin

Aaron Sorkin answers your screenwriting for @WIRED.

[Aaron Sorkin @WI_ScreenWr_Sup]

@Matthewwwrites It's a more complicated question than you might think. I think I'd like to write an episode of M.A.S.H. I love The Office and Schitt's Creek, but I don't think I would do a good job. I would love to go back to an episode of television I've written and write it all over again.

[Aaron Sorkin @WI_ScreenWr_Sup]

@therealGavinJT You need talent and you need practice. You need to do it a lot and keep doing it. Be a diagnostician. When you see a TV show or a movie you don't like, try to think about what was wrong. Same when there's something you love, figure out why it works. That and a little bit of luck.

[Aaron Sorkin @WI_ScreenWr_Sup]

@authorJDMay You have to be able to empathize with the character. Find something about that character that is like you then you have to write that character as if they're making their case to God why they should be allowed into heaven. The audience can think of them as a villain, but not you.

[Aaron Sorkin @WI_ScreenWr_Sup]

@ShahTheWanderer Pretty much any good television show today is following in the footprints Larry Gelbart left when he created the TV Series M.A.S.H. He was the first one to say that sitcoms don't have to be silly just because they're funny. They can tell real stories.

[Aaron Sorkin @WI_ScreenWr_Sup]

@joaniejabronie The writer's rooms on the shows that I've done worked entirely differently than other shows. Because I'm writing episodes, I have a room with a leader and I can come in and say "What are you guys thinking about?" And we start trying to break stories.

[Aaron Sorkin @WI_ScreenWr_Sup]

@q_cabss Here's what's key in creating drama: Intention and obstacle. Somebody wants something. Something formidable is standing in their way of getting it. What matters is the intention is important to them and we understand why it's important to them and the obstacles have to be real.

[Aaron Sorkin @WI_ScreenWr_Sup]

@Holly_Jack Second Drafts: I say retype the whole thing. Sharpen up that joke, that dialogue that's kind of clunky. Get it down to its fighting weight.

[Aaron Sorkin @WI_ScreenWr_Sup]

@kevinpowers70 I don't know an app, I'm sorry. I'm showing my age. However, take a book that you liked when you were a little kid, re-read it. I bet there's a story there that you can turn into a more adult story.