As a screenwriter - if you are completely honest with yourself - you cant help but admit that your greatest threat is the audience, where audience is not understood as a demographic category but as a character outside the script to whom the story is addressed. A good part of the drama necessary for uncovering the story resides in the conflict between the storyteller and his/her audience. Audience plays the part of antagonist to the writers role as protagonist. The writer drives the action, which is forever complicated, frustrated and undermined by the audiences needs and sensibilities. Audience wants you to prove it. Audience has a chip on its shoulder, and doesnt give a damn. Audience has been there and done that in the guise of your mother, your father, your ex-, your worst enemy. Audience laughs at your stupidity and dares you to change its view of you and the story world that you would have it care about. Audience is defiant. It has your number. The only way you can defeat it is by carrying a bigger stick - your only defence is an inspired offence, namely the story.
About This Quote
About Billy Marshall Stoneking
Billy Marshall Stoneking was a 20th-century American writer. William Randolph Marshall, better known as Billy Marshall Stoneking, was an American-Australian poet, playwright, filmmaker, and teacher. His son C.W. Read more on Wikipedia →