As the writer of The Hangover Parts II & III, Identity Thief, and The Huntsman: Winter’s War and the co-host of the weekly screenwriting podcast Scriptnotes, AFF alum and 2019 confirmed panelist Craig Mazin has mastered the craft of storytelling across genres and formats.
With his HBO mini-series Chernobyl set to premiere next Monday May 6, we’re taking a look back on our many conversations with this AFF frequenter for some insider knowledge on navigating the industry and crafting content that resonates across mediums.
Here are seven writing tips from king of the craft Craig Mazin:
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FIND THE HEART OF YOUR STORY—AND PROTECT IT
There has to be something in it that matters to you. There has to be its beating heart—the thing that you will protect at all costs. If you are pitching an idea to somebody or it’s a screenplay and you give it to them and they don’t like the thing that matters to you, they’re just wrong for it…you have to find the person that’s right for what you have.
-Craig Mazin at AFF 2012
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RECOGNIZE TRENDS IN ENTERTAINMENT
You want to try and catch the beginning of something as best you can, but no matter where you come in on these waves of things—and I think it’s true for comedy and drama, at some point you will get sucked down by the undertow, and you just get back up and start again.
-Craig Mazin at AFF 2012
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STOP TRYING TO PLEASE EVERYONE
There isn’t anything that makes everyone laugh. Some people love something, some people don’t love others. Comedy is you know…work to your room. Know your room and your room changes…comedy is infectious and hating it is infectious, and you know, there are comedies that we all come to love and appreciate over time, but it is just a matter of taste.
-Craig Mazin at AFF 2012
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ACCEPT THE LIMITATIONS OF THE FORM
Remember, writing prose is for people to read. Screenwriting is for productions to produce. It’s an entirely different thing. The only way to work through it, unfortunately, is to work through it. You have to get used to a rhythm set of tools…it’s a very stripped down, bare form of writing. You only write what can be shot, or seen, or experienced by the audience.
-Craig Mazin at AFF 2012
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USE STORYTELLING TOOLS TO DRIVE YOUR COMEDY
A lot of the stuff that we do has actually nothing to do with the comedy. It has everything to do with the comedy, but it’s underneath it. Story, character, structure, theme…what’s great about it enables the comedy. The comedy doesn’t enable it.
-Craig Mazin at AFF 2012
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PREPARE YOUR GAME FACE
It is an emotionally difficult thing, to be a writer, particularly when you’re in a room with somebody that is assaulting what you’ve done, and what you’ve done is an expression of yourself. So, you have every natural human tendency to tighten up and to get upset, and that, of course, is immediately visible on your face to everybody around you, even if you think it’s not…so, I just try and stay calm and relaxed and not fazed and not upset and not anxious, even though I am all the time…Don’t panic. Because if I panic, then they’re going to start panicking.
-Craig Mazin at AFF 2011
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MAKE THEM BELIEVE IN YOU
When you work as a screenwriter, you know that you are selling what you write. But what they need from you is something else—they need the work, but they also need comfort. It’s a very scary business, and as scared as we are, I think they’re even more scared. At least we get to go away and write the script. They have no idea what we’re doing at all, and it’s petrifying to them because they have to spend a lot of money up front and they don’t know what’s going to happen…so I try and remember that, if I can comfort them and calm them down and make them feel like they’re in good hands, then there’s a decent chance that they might keep me around a little bit. Long enough, at least, to get the real job done, which is the writing.
-Craig Mazin at AFF 2011
Visit onstory.tv for a closer look inside the creative process from today’s leading writers and filmmakers.
Want to hear these tips first hand? Join Craig Mazin and our growing roster of confirmed panelists at this year’s Writers Conference (Oct. 24 – 27, 2019) for a weekend of insider tips and writing advice from the leading voices of film and television. For more information on how to attend, click here.