9 Bits Of Writing Advice From Guillermo del Toro
Discover nine bits of writing advice from Guillermo del Toro to help you find your voice, trust your instincts, and create compelling stories.
About Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro (born on 9 October 1964) is a Mexican film director, screenwriter, producer, and author. He is best known for his horror and fantasy films, which combine emotional depth with complex themes. Monsters are also a recurring feature of his work.
Del Toro developed a love of film and horror stories as a child. He began making short films while still at high school and later studied filmmaking at the University of Guadalajara. His first feature film, Cronos, won the International Critics’ Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
He went on to write, produce, and direct numerous films. One of his best-known works is The Shape of Water, for which he developed the story and co-wrote the screenplay. The film received 13 Academy Award nominations and won four, including Best Picture. Del Toro also won the Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA for Best Director.
He also worked on the screenplays for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and its two sequels.
Del Toro has written several works of fiction, including The Strain, The Fall, and The Night Eternal. His other books include Pan’s Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun, The Monsters of Hellboy II, and The Hollow Ones.
7 Bits Of Writing Advice From Guillermo del Toro
1. Don’t Be Afraid To Create Monsters
‘Who would you rather go out with at night? Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde? Frankly, I think that everything we try to deny about our bodies and our lives – about being fallible and mortal, that we’re going to rot, and that our armpits smell, that we are imperfect, that we sin and screw up – all these are the things that actually make us human. And that’s why I try to make the monsters the heroes in my movies.’ ~The Guardian
2. Cherish Your Unique Voice
‘You are what you are, and that’s what you bring to the movies you make. All we can do as artists is the synthesis of something that has been done before. We’re at least 2000 years into civilization. Every song has been sung, every story has been told, but your voice hasn’t been heard. Your voice is yet to be heard. In that, I package two things that are one and the same, your qualities and your defects.’ ~nofimschool.com
3. Read What You Really Like
‘Don’t read, or watch, purely for research. Look into media that you’re really interested in. That way it draws from you something you already had creatively.’ ~Outstanding Screenplays
4. Use Notebooks For Multiple Projects
‘The mental promiscuity of having four or five things going at once in the notebooks makes them feed off one another.’ ~Jillian Hess
5. Write Instinctively
‘If you’re not operating on an instinctive level, you’re not an artist. Reason over emotion is bullshit, absolute bullshit. We suffocate ourselves in rules. I find fantasy liberating.’ ~Go Into The Story
6. Create The Stories That Need You
‘One of the things that I’ve always believed is that you should not make the movies you need, but the movies that need you; that wouldn’t exist if you didn’t make them. That’s where your voice really resides.’ ~The Hollywood Reporter
7. Create An Antagonist Who Is Equal To The Antagonist
‘The idea of the movie is that we need to look at the ‘other’ and not fear the ‘other,’ and that is embodied by the creature. But I cannot help but think that if we apply that rule to the creature and the protagonist, you have to apply that rule to the antagonist. So, I wanted to at least give the audience the opportunity to understand what makes him tick, what makes him have his resentment, or what makes him feel pressure, and why his goals need to be achieved in a position to the goals of the protagonist.’ ~The Beat
8. Love Is The Most Important Thing
‘If your film features love interests who are of the same sex, different religion, age, political persuasion or even species, let that be just a fact, and rather focus on the true point of the story – their love for each other.’ ~Outstanding Screenplays
9. If You Want to Write, Write
‘The advice is if you want to direct, direct. And even easier—if you want to write, write. Writing is one of the only things that can be done with very little resources.’ ~Screenwriting From Iowa
Check out How To Write A Screenplay
The Last Word
Guillermo del Toro’s writing advice reminds us to embrace our unique voices and trust our creative instincts. He encourages writers to explore what they love, develop complex characters, and tell stories that only they can tell. His message is simple: if you want to write, start writing.
Source for author’s image: GuillemMedina, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guillermo_del_Toro_in_2017.jpg
by Amanda Patterson
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