Steven Moffat on Writing
Sherlock, Steven, the DoctorMy current obsession is Steven Moffat. He's the screenwriter behind the best mind-blowing episodes of Doctor Who and Sherlock on BBC. His plots are crazy creative, with plenty of twist and turns that you never see coming, but are planted so perfectly. I know without looking at the credits every time that it's a Steven Moffat episode. They're that amazing.
So naturally I had to see what this guy had to say about his writing process. I scoured the Internet for anything I could find. (You're welcome.) Steven doesn't like to delve much (you can tell he's tired of getting asked about advice), and I think he's written for so long, the process is simply intuitive to him. But it is still fun to learn what I can from such a genius. Most of all, I was comforted to learn that behind his master mind, he's an insecure writer like 99% of the rest of us.
General Writing Advice:“Write. Write
lots. Dont ask for advice, just write. And read the kind of stuff you want to
write, because thats the only advice that matters. If its screenplays, read
William Goldmans - he know EVERYTHING.”“Every writer writes about what theyve personally been
through, just because thats whats to hand. I dont know if its an important
rule of thumb –you should tell the story that most animates you.”
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“Just write. The big break is easy
if youre good enough. I hear people saying, Im desperate to write
–Ive written this script. And I want to say: Why havent you written
50 scripts?... You have to write all the time and not worry so much
about going to the right parties or the contacts you have in the business
–theyre completely irrelevant. And stop badgering people for advice
because there almost is none –If you write a truly brilliant script, it
will get on the telly.”
On the Controlled Release of Information:
“The controlled release of information – which is more or less what storytelling is – is really, really hard. Especially on Doctor Who,
where you do need quite a lot going on, because everything is new. Its
not like youve got a big regular cast, or one set that youre going to
see every week. In Doctor Who, youre lucky if theres one you
see every week! So you need to release quite a lot of information. Its a
whole new world and you have to know what a normal day is like there,
so you can twist it.”
“I know that, in the past, Russell has
given notes to writers, saying, Tell everyone everything thats going
on, all of the time. Broadly speaking, I wouldnt agree with that to
the last heartbeat, but I think that comes from the right place.”
“I
think that, right up until the last minute, youre constantly changing
your mind about the release of information in a story. Theres a fine line between mysterious and confusing. And Ive often drifted over it!”
On Writing Villains:
“[V]illains arent necessarily evil. But I do think that straightforward evil is actually meaningless. All the evil acts in the history of the world have been committed with a pretty exact and precise agenda: people do what they think is right. You fly a plane into the World Trade Centre because you think its a necessary thing to do – not because you think its going to improve your day. Its an insane and evil act – of course it is, its appalling – but its done to an end. Real evil is just an agenda we dont understand, and frequently we have to work out what it is.”
“Doctor Who stories work particularly well if theres a good mystery: how does it all fit together? Thats good, because it puts the Doctor at the centre of the story. Hes going to be the man who decodes it, figures it out and pieces it together. If you just have villains who are evil and want to conquer the universe, what does that actually mean? Think what a lot of admin that would be! But if you have villains with complex ideas of their own, then the Doctor is again at the storys centre. He works out what they want, and what it is that theyre trying to do. And stops it. But it allows him to have a big dramatic moment where he says, This is whats been going on, and looks clever. Him looking clever is important. Whereas a straightforward military threat brings out the least interesting parts of the Doctor. He becomes a bit superfluous.”
“[Y]ou can have the moral debate. But its slightly pointless because it then comes down to, Im better than you. Im a good man and youre a bad one! It sort of works with the Daleks, but a lot of the time Im not really sure I care about that. I care about the cleverness of the hero. So the more mystery there is in the story, the more there is for the Doctor to do. He is a kind of Sherlock Holmes character, who makes quick intuitive leaps and is absolutely brilliant.”
On the Importance of Keeping Secrets as a Writer:
“It changes the experience of writing it if I give too much away. Right now, Ive got an idea for the ending which Im extremely excited about, but I dont wanna say it out loud. Not because it would matter if anyone knew about it, but just because saying it out loud might spoil the magic. You might look disappointed. So I need to cling to this idea. In fact, thats a relevant thing to say about writing. Before, Ive told people things and they seem underwhelmed, so Ive lost faith in it from that point on!”
“The most truthful thing I have said in this interview about writing is the importance of these secrets. The magic of Not Telling Anyone Yet. I know Russell thinks that way too – he wont tell anybody what hes doing. Because it turns to ashes in your mouth. It almost becomes ordinary.”
On Beginning a New Draft:
“When you have a lot of things to do, sometimes its good to write a few pages so you then think, Yes, I can do it.”
“You
think of an idea, then think of all the things youd like to do with
it. Ooh, itd be creepy if that happened.... [S]uppose the
cliffhanger was like that! You cant fit all these ideas into the
story, but you have a lovely period - a golden honeymoon period - where
you think youll be able to fit all of those in easily. Then you realise you cant, and you start prioritising to all the cool bits.”
On the Writing Process:
“There isnt one single script when Im not, at some point, sick-makingly terrified of my inability to write it. I mean, its just hard! I asked Russell, Do you ever wanna stick your head out the window and shout, I dont know what Im doing!?... [E]very time I make a script work, it feels like luck. I dont think that feeling ever goes away. It really is that hard, and thats what its supposed to be like. The sheer amount of thinking you have to do, to make this work! When I read scripts that are bad, its often because theyre just lazy. The writer hasnt thought things through in the way that I would. There was a quote from John Cleese, around the time he was ruling the world with Fawlty Towers: If Im any good at writing comedy, its because I know how hard its supposed to be. And thats it. Its shockingly difficult and emotionally upsetting!”
“No one is that self-assured when theyre writing, or that assured about their writing. Theres no experience worse than handing your script in, and waiting.”
“You can go into an empty room with just a desk and a computer without internet, and youd still lose focus. Because sometimes youre not ready to write it. Youre not comfortable with what youre doing and you have to get there.”
“No writer truly stays focused, all day, every day.... Two or three hours will pass and Ill have done nothing: not even had a useful thought!”
“People talk grandly about range, but the truth is that youre just writing.”
Sources:
http://jasonarnopp.blogspot.com/p/doctor-who.html
http://sherlockology.tumblr.com/post/23501865686/steven-moffat-live-chathttp://guru.bafta.org/steven-moffat-special-award-interview
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