The Jordan Harbinger Show
1077: Michael Arndt | The Oscar-Winning Science of Storytelling
12 Nov 2024
Want to write a great screenplay? Little Miss Sunshine writer Michael Arndt shares secrets from Pixar, Hollywood, and a decade of script doctoring! What We Discuss with Michael Arndt: Success in screenwriting often requires extreme persistence and resilience — Michael Arndt wrote 10 screenplays over 10 years before selling Little Miss Sunshine, and even then did about 100 drafts of that script before it was ready. The best stories often create a "tilted universe" where the protagonist is a response to or antidote to the negative values of their world (like Robin Hood emerging in response to an unjust system, or The Dude's laid-back nature contrasting with an aggressive world in The Big Lebowski). Audience feedback is crucial but challenging to balance — as Michael quotes Billy Wilder: "Individually they're idiots, but collectively they're a genius." You have to respect audience intelligence while still maintaining your creative vision. Great endings often work by creating a false binary (win/lose) and then revealing a surprising third option that exceeds audience expectations — like in Little Miss Sunshine where Olive neither wins nor loses but creates something entirely unexpected. Anyone can improve their storytelling by studying great stories and breaking them down systematically — Michael's own journey shows that storytelling is a craft that can be learned through careful analysis, practice, and continual refinement of understanding how stories work. His video essays on screenwriting (available on YouTube) offer concrete tools for developing these skills. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1077 If you love listening to this show as much as we love making it, would you please peruse and reply to our Membership Survey here? And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally! This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Subscribe to our once-a-week Wee Bit Wiser newsletter today and start filling your Wednesdays with wisdom! Do you even Reddit, bro? Join us at r/JordanHarbinger!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Individually, they're idiots, but collectively, they're a genius, you know, and I think that you have to respect the genius of your audience, right? Your audience is smarter than you. And so you have to be humble and you have to listen to the feedback you're getting.
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Today, a really fun conversation. It's a little bit different since Gabriel and I actually co-host this one together, which, as many of you know, is quite rare. We're talking with my friend Michael Arndt, acclaimed screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3, Star Wars, The Force Awakens.
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