3-2-1 Screenwriting Thursday: Bizarre Memory, Attention to Detail, About Art
July 9, 2026· Kate Gaulke
Happy Thursday!
I've been thinking a lot about the future and the deep changes about to impact us over the next 1 to 3 to 10 years. It feels difficult to plan a life around so much uncertainty.
However, the fact of the matter is we currently live in the present. And as so many tend to forget, especially when we're stuck in a wide shot, we have agency.
We can shape how all of this works out.
Let's be more active characters.
On with the show -
3 IDEAS FROM ME
I. Specificity Ties to Memory
We remember highly specific, outlandish things more than we remember 'normal' things.
Use this to your advantage in your first 10 pages!!! Open with something crazy, something specific and unique that exists outside of the norm.
One of the factors you're up against when submitting your screenplay is drifting into generic and therefore forgettable. Dare to be bold.
II. Attention to Detail
When I was young my mom used to say, 'there must be something they do to get it that way' referring to how many ads or works of art seemed unusually perfect. Like there was some special tool, or software, or secret to getting things just so.
And, after all this time on sets, in editing bays, in photoshoots, it's clear to me that - outside of photoshop - getting things 'just so' really does just come down to how insanely anal you're willing to be about something.
III. Art Needs to be About Something
I had a wonderful photography professor in college who spoke openly about how majoring in Art was not a good idea. But probably not for the reasons you might think.
His reasoning was not the typical, 'it's hard to be an artist in the real world.' His argument was that Art is a craft which in it's highest form is about something else.
Art can be about an idea, an emotion, a political movement, a detailed observation, an experience, etc. But, much like sex or power, art is ultimately not about art.
If you only focus on craft itself, your work will likely improve technically (which is relevant and does matter!!) but it will hit a ceiling. Technical skill is not enough. Craft for craft's sake is not enough. Art needs to be about something.
2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS
I.
From the myriad of fantasy novels I inhale when not working on screenwriting, the latest was Spinning Silver (NYT Bestseller, Hugo and Nebula Award finalist) by Naomi Novik:
"But the world I wanted wasn’t the world I lived in, and if I would do nothing until I could repair every terrible thing at once, I would do nothing forever."
II.
The great Ray Bradbury:
"You can't write for other people. You can't write for the left or the right, this religion or that religion, or this belief or that belief.
You have to write the way you see things.
I tell people, make a list of ten things you hate and tear them down in a short story or poem. Make a list of ten things you love and celebrate them."
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
How can you be more active in shaping your life?
Your world could be so much more interesting if you took more of the reins.
Until next week,
Kate Gaulke