Billy Wilder on How to Tell Compelling Stories
The Academy Award-winning director shares 10 storytelling tips
Stories are powerful. This fascinating infographic shows how the human brain is hardwired to respond to storytelling differently than other forms of writing.
But telling a story in an entertaining way that will capture the attention of your audience can sometimes seem like an art all its own.
That’s why I love studying well-crafted movies. Because of a movie’s time constraints, the screenwriter has to grab the audience’s attention from the first scene and move the plot along quickly.
A masterful screenwriter can teach us a lot about the ingredients necessary for telling captivating stories.
In college, I took a film criticism class and wrote my term paper on the life and work of Academy Award-winning writer-director Billy Wilder. I love a film with good dialogue, and Wilder was an expert at writing snappy, unforgettable lines and crafting engaging scenes.
Who’s Billy Wilder?
Even if you’ve never seen one of Wilder’s films, you’ll probably recognize that iconic shot of Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grate from his 1955 romantic comedy The Seven Year Itch.
