DIABLO CODY

HOW TO WRITE A SCREENPLAY ... ACCORDING TO

She’s a screenwriting superstar who ro ckete d to fame on her ver y first project when she won an Oscar for Juno. Diablo Cody’s latest film, Lisa Frankenstein, also feature s signatures like zeitgeist y dialogue, larger-than -life characters and an irresistible concept , and now she’s breaking down her process for Total Film.

I love the process of being able to write something, and watch it magically become a film,’ beams Diablo Cody. ‘Writing is instant gratification. If I want to write a scene in a blizzard, I can do that in 15 minutes. Setting up that blizzard [on a film set], it’s like, “Guys, this is crazy. Are we sure this is worth it?”’ she laughs.

Chatting to Diablo Cody - the Academy Awardwinning screenwriter behind Juno, Jennifer’s Body, Young Adult, Ricky and the Flash and Tully - is as funny, refreshing and illuminating as watching a film based on one of her scripts. It’s December 2023, and she’s talking Total Film through her writing methodology ahead of the release of her latest project, Lisa Frankenstein. Directed by first-time filmmaker Zelda Williams, it’s like an 80s teen romcom, only here the romance is between a girl (Kathryn Newton) and a reanimated corpse (Cole Sprouse). With a knack for witty phrasing (‘If I’m working on a project, and I’m being paid to do it, as far as I’m concerned, they’re renting my brain, and they may use it however they care to’), Cody is also self-deprecating and down to earth, which you might not expect from someone who bagged an Oscar and BAFTA for their first ever screenwriting gig.

Having also worked in TV and on Broadway, Cody had been itching to write another feature. ‘I admit, I was thinking to myself, “You’ve got to write another feature. It’s been too long,”’ she says of Lisa Frankenstein. ‘But it felt organic. It usually does. I can’t force myself to write anything, sadly.’ Here, she tells TF her no-nonsense advice for how she puts together a screenplay…

ON THE OUTLINE

‘Typically I have a very standard process, and it has evolved over the years, mainly due to the constraints of the industry. Iam not naturally inclined to outline a screenplay before I write it, but the majority of the studio jobs that I take require an outline, because they want to know what they’re paying for. And I have to say, I do think those suits might be on to something, because it is actually a really helpful step. Having your story beats in front of you, you are going to have a better script. Just do it.

‘Lisa Frankenstein was a very different process. I might even say it was unprecedented. I wrote that screenplay in March and April of 2020. I was in a really strange headspace. We weren’t going anywhere at that point [due to COVID-19]. I think everyone was teetering on the brink of sanity. I didn’t even know if we were living through the apocalypse, so I certainly wasn’t writing with any commercial mindset. I was just writing for my own gratification and my own sanity. This is, in some ways, the most pure thing I’ve written since I was very young.’

STARTING POINT

‘[A screenplay idea] usually starts, oddly enough, with a scene. I imagine an interaction in my mind that is interesting to me, and then I think, “OK, what context would that appear in?” I kind of write the movie around it. That was how I wrote Juno. I was just imagining how awkward and interesting it would be for this pregnant teenage girl to show up at the well-appointed, upper-middleclass home of two adults that wanted to adopt her unborn baby. What would that conversation be like?

‘With Lisa Frankenstein, for years I had wanted to write a movie about someone who comes back from the dead. [It’s] a theme that is resonant for a lot of people, because we kind of reinvent ourselves a lot over the course of a lifetime. I wanted to write this love story about a teenage girl and a corpse that would allow her to access her own grief, on her own timeline, because the living people around her aren’t going to let her have that.

‘Everything that I write ultimately ends up being about transformation in some way –whether it’s about a girl turning into a cannibal demon, or a pregnant teenager, or a corpse who is becoming a real boy through the power of love and revenge.’

OBSERVE AND REPORT

‘I’m a journalist by nature. My blog was totally observational. I was working in a strip club, and I was observing the interactions that I saw on a daily basis, which were fascinating. I was also, around that time, working for the local paper. Those skills were absolutely transferable to screenwriting. Because if you don’t understand people, you can’t do it.

‘IF YOU DON’ T UNDERSTA ND PEOPL E, YOU CAN’T WRITE’

Observing people, their mannerisms, their dialects – I’ve always loved that stuff. And I’ve always written. I’d just never thought of screenwriting as the [format] that I’d wind up in.

‘Sometimes in this business, I do meet people [and] I can tell that their experience is limited, in that they grew up very sheltered and very privileged, because I think that hobbles you as a writer.

‘You have to live. At the very least, you should be keeping a diary. For me, personally, that was more helpful to me than any book I could have read, or any course I could have taken. I’m on TikTok every day, because I need to know how to write people that are under 30 [laughs].’

BACKGROUND READING

‘[After being commissioned to write my first screenplay] I went to the bookstore and bought screenplays: Ghost World. American Beauty. Those were movies that I enjoyed. Reading them was helpful, because I was at least able to see, like, “OK, this is how it should look.” I watched movies. I already had a sense of act structure because I’d written a lot of fiction, so that part kind of came naturally to me.

‘I didn’t read any books about how to write a screenplay, though. I will eventually because I’m curious, and someday I would love to teach, so I’m sure I’m going to need it on the syllabus.

‘When I was younger, I [worried reading those books might mess with my process], and now I’m like: I’ve written how many screenplays in my own style? It wouldn’t kill me to pick up some technique from a book [laughs]. Maybe I should try it. Maybe I should read one of those books, and write a script according to the rules. It could be the best thing I’ve ever written.’

WRITING RITUALS

‘I’m imagining a life where I have the luxury of [having a strict writing routine]. I’m picturing myself at a pristine desk, and starting at a precise time each day. I can’t do that. I kept having kids. I have three. They’re a little bit older now. They’re actually all downstairs, unsupervised, while I’m [doing this interview]. My laptop is right here, and I will probably pick it up, and continue writing on this beanbag surrounded by trash [after this].

‘For people who have made different life choices, it’s not necessary. I have had to teach myself to write in any situation at any time when I get a chance. I grab moments throughout the day. I grab moments before bed. But I don’t get those big, luxurious, unbroken blocks of time that I once did.

‘My one rule I have is, I have to work every day. I definitely work in bursts. I will have a day when I can crank out 20 pages, which is probably my absolute max, and I have to be under the gun for that [laughs]. And I might have a day where I write two.’

TUNING THE DIALOGUE

‘I read all the dialogue [in my scripts] aloud, and do the scenes, and play the characters. It’s really funny if I’m playing somebody’s Appalachian grandmother, which I did recently in one of my scripts. And I’m a terrible actor. So I’m sure it’s a sight to behold. But I have to read it out loud as I write it. I can’t hear it otherwise. I’ve always done that. It’s fun to read it with other people, too, and put on a little play.

‘ YOU HAVE TO WRITE WH AT YOU K NOW. IT HAS TO BE PERSONA L , OR IT’S NO T G OI NG TO BE G OOD’

‘It’s hard not to [squirrel away dialogue that you hear in real life]. People are so funny. I’ve been writing a project about competitive cheerleading. Observing younger people on TikTok, and the way that they communicate with each other, has been really educational.

‘I try to expose myself to as many people and ages as I can, and I try to get out of the bubble as often as I can. It gets harder as I get older. I can’t just say, “Oh, I’m going to be a stripper for a year now because it might be interesting.” I’m definitely a little more tethered than I was. I can still take a trip.’

GENERATING IDEAS

‘My Notes app goes crazy; I’m always writing [potential ideas] down. It’s funny, though, because now it’s like I’m constantly having to generate new material. My first few screenplays, I always say that they were almost a treasury of things I wanted to say. I had such a backlog, and now I don’t [laughs]. I’ve used it all. I better keep paying attention.

‘Writer’s block is real. I can’t stand it when people say, “It’s your lack of discipline. You’ve got to fight through it.” Sometimes there’s nothing there, and it puts me into a panic every time. I think, “This is it. My career is over. I can’t write any more.” And then something happens, and I feel inspired again.

‘I wish I knew what triggers inspiration or a visit from the muse. But I don’t know, and it sucks. If you gave me a job, and you said, “You need to go outside and plant 100 tulips every day” –I know I can do that. With writing, if you tell me I have to write 10 pages tomorrow, I actually don’t know if I can do it [laughs]. It’s not concrete. Honestly, it’s a lot of mental stress. But it’s also fun. The days when it’s fun, it’s like, “I can’t believe that this is my profession. I can’t believe I’m getting paid to tell this story.”’

ESSENTIAL ADVICE

‘You need to put any commercial concerns aside, and write something that resonates with you. You have to write what you know. It has to be personal, or it’s not going to be good. And the second thing I would say is, you have to take advantage of technology.

‘I guess I’m a romantic, but I always say: the greatest screenplay you write is going to be the one that really comes from your heart. I just can’t imagine a young person having a cynical outlook like, “I heard in Hollywood they’re looking for more four-quadrant movies aimed towards women because Barbie was so successful, so I’m going to sit down and brainstorm those ideas.” That makes me kind of sad. Barbie was amazing because it was personal to Greta Gerwig, and you have to find that story, too.’

LISA FRANKENSTEIN OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 1 MARCH