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The Big Idea
Any good comic screenplay is far more than the sum of its parts. Great jokes, great moments, funny characters, a mind-blowing beginning, and an equally mind-blowing ending—they’re all as useless as pretty lights wrapped around a dead Christmas tree if the script doesn’t have a Big Idea. Or if the Big Idea doesn’t satisfy.
I’ve written and re-written scripts, changing characters and entire story lines—and then re-written them all over again. Draft after draft after draft until it barely resembles what I started with. But I never throw out the Big Idea. If I do, the project is over.
I’m using the Big Idea in the general sense. It can mean concept, story premise, logline—whatever makes the story special. The Big Idea is what makes ...
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