Story Believability Quotes

I think audiences get too comfortable and familiar in today's movies. They believe everything they're hearing and seeing. I like to shake that up.

I'm writing for my ideal reader, for somebody who's willing to take the time, who's willing to get lost in a new world, who's willing to do their part. But then I have to do my part and give them a sound and a voice that they believe in enough to keep going.

When writing fantastical literature, your biggest problem is getting your audience to believe the fantastical elements of your story.

I'm not looking for is the audience going to like it [the film during the first screening] or not. I want to hear somebody try to poke a hole in it. I want to hear why they saw the logic was flawed or why that scene was not believable.

I've seen unpublished manuscripts where the writer doesn't know they are making fun of the villain - but they are. If you aren't afraid of your villain, how can your hero be afraid?

The reason that some motion-capture films don't work is if the scripts are not good, and the characters aren't engaging, then you don't believe in the journey, and you're not connected to it. It's not the technology's fault.

You can't make a character do something they wouldn't do.

I have realised just how important it is to readers to feel that fictional stories are based on reality.

The thing that struck me most after first viewing 'The Sessions' was the charm of Mark O'Brien and the intimacy that the director, Ben Lewin, manages to capture perfectly on screen. I did not feel forced or cajoled in any way into believing the story.

When writers stop believing in their own stories, readers tend to sense it.

The problem with a lot of narrative films is that they're not real enough.

I don't understand that, because I think that what people like most about the show is that they recognize themselves in the characters and their problems, so the more believable the family is, the more we can draw the audience in.

I don't like villains who are just villains. People who are just there to be bad - ugh - so annoying.