38. How to write a movie script that sells

Many of us feel we have a story inside us. If that's you, you might have decided to go to an SXSW session, late on the Sunday, called 'Screenwriting to Sell.' Hosted by C. Robert Cargill, the writer of - among other things -  the Marvel movie 'Dr Strange', it was very pragmatically aimed at giving you all the information you needed to write a script that studios will buy.

Cargill was super insightful, filled with practical insights - so many that we'll break them into a couple of posts. Here we'll focus on his views on the decisions you make right at the beginning: What kind of movie you should write.

One of the key ones was 'Pick a genre you love,' don't try and write for a market you're not part of, or don't understand, just because you think it's popular. 'Don't chase what's happening. The market is cyclical. Write the film you want to see. Immerse yourself in the genre.'

When he says immerse yourself in the genre, he doesn't just mean read about it, or watch the movies. 'Talk to people who watch them. Listen to people as they come out of the theatre, understand how they feel about the film they've seen.'

If you're still unsure, one genre to avoid might be fantasy. He sees 2019 as the end of the fantasy era. Realism is the next thing, flagged by the coming surge in biopics.