“If someone can talk you out of being a writer, you’re not a writer. If I can talk you out of being a writer, I’ve done you a favor, because now you’ll be free to pursue your real talent, whatever that may be. And, for the record, everybody has one. The lucky ones figure out what that is. The unlucky ones keep on writing shitty screenplays and asking me to read them.”
Josh Olson will not read your fucking script.
The description he gives of the synopsis someone asked him to read is very familiar — in feeling, if not in detail. I get synopses like that in submissions a lot, the kind that you finish reading and then say, “But what the hell is this about?”
It’s a common problem — framing a synopsis as a series of events rather than a summary of the plot. I’m still not so good at it myself. I can only say, start at the middle, your central conflict, and work out from there, if that makes any sense. Don’t start at the beginning and work your way to the end.
