Dan Gilroy has developed an approach to screenwriting that cuts through industry mythology to focus on what actually works.
He’s found success across genres. He gave us Nightcrawler’s urban thriller, the legal drama of Roman J. Israel, Esq., and art-world horror in Velvet Buzzsaw. Most recently, his focus has been in the Star Wars universe and Andor’s galaxy-spanning rebellion.
Along the way, he’s figured out the fundamentals of screenwriting, and he’s not afraid to share the practical wisdom you can only get from work. His philosophy focuses on things like finding your voice, trusting your audience, and understanding that emotion drives everything.
He’ll also tell you straight-up that writers don’t need to be charming, because executives kind of expect you to be socially awkward, anyway. After our conversation about his Andor episodes, I walked away with more practical screenwriting wisdom than I’ve gotten from most writing books.
1. Keep everything character-based, even in massive stories
Despite working on a Star Wars series with galactic stakes, Gilroy follows showrunner Tony Gilroy’s mandate to “keep everything granular” and character-focused. This meant that every story was grounded in something relatable. The writers distilled huge ideas down to their impact on individual characters.
“This is about people under extraordinarily trying circumstances who are facing crises that they couldn’t imagine,” he said.
He said that even action sequences should be written from the characters’ points of view rather than just moving people around. Every beat should be motivated.
“You don’t want to move the characters around like chess pieces and go, ‘Oh, now they’re getting shot at.’ You’re really going, ‘Syril’s standing there,’ and you’re going like, ‘Wait a minute. Syril’s standing there watching this whole thing go on. People are dying all around him. Oh my God. He must be thinking, I’m responsible for this.’”
Remember that even action is storytelling, and you can reveal a character’s personality through the choices they make. Give them agency. Don’t have the action happen to your character—they drive the action.
2. Trust your audience and minimize exposition
Exposition is hard. We all know this, but Gilroy said he believes writers often talk down to audiences with over-explanation. His advice for exposition was to trust the audience to keep up.
“Distill the critical components of what needs to be said and let the audience connect the rest of the dots,” he said. “I think people spend too much time over-explaining, giving too much exposition. It’s boring.”
Let the audience have questions, as long as you give them enough detail to figure things out. You can leave gaps in the timeline when it makes sense. Trust your audience to be active viewers.
“We have a hundred thousand years of listening to campfire stories,” he said, so audiences can fill in gaps naturally. He advocates for giving just enough context without boring viewers with needless exposition.
He was critical of committee-driven exposition.
“They’re really talking down to the audience when they do that. They really are, because somewhere a committee has decided ‘people are going to be confused by this, so we’ve got to make this clear.’ Somebody should speak up and go, ‘You know what? I don’t think they will, and if a few of them are, there’s nothing we can do about that. But now let’s not bore the other 95% with needless exposition.’”
{% module_block module "widget_9b9483f5-45a4-4b3b-b60c-eaebfac31283" %}{% module_attribute "child_css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "definition_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "field_types" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{"default_text":"group","slides":"group","slideshow_settings":"group","styles":"group"}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "label" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "module_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}98459521332{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "path" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"@hubspot/image_slider_gallery"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "schema_version" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}2{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "slides" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}[{"caption":"Jake Gyllenhaal in 'Nightcrawler'
","img":{"alt":"Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler","height":475,"src":"https://200838.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/200838/Jake%20Gyllenhaal%20in%20Nightcrawler-1.png","width":840},"link_url":{"no_follow":false,"open_in_new_tab":true,"rel":"noopener","sponsored":false,"url":{"content_id":null,"href":"https://blog.finaldraft.com/5-tips-for-cinematic-formatting","href_with_scheme":"https://blog.finaldraft.com/5-tips-for-cinematic-formatting","type":"EXTERNAL"},"user_generated_content":false}}]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_objects" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}[]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"NOT_SMART"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "wrap_field_tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"div"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% end_module_block %}3. Experiment with script formatting and style
Gilroy spends two weeks before each script developing its unique style, from his slugline-free approach in Nightcrawler to adopting the haiku-like format of the 1978 Alien script.
“The style [of a script] is really important. It transmits something about the idea, and it gets boring if you don’t do that a little,” he said. “I’m a fanatic for messing around with style. I don’t like just the typical style.”
The best way to see what’s possible is to look at other scripts. For example, the early drafts of A Quiet Place were understandably sparse but also included illustrations. Another of Gilroy’s scripts, for Velvet Buzzsaw, featured lots of different fonts.
You can certainly get creative, but ensure that the writing and formatting fundamentals are understood and well-established first.
4. Prioritize emotion over mechanics
When asked about his favorite moments from Andor, Gilroy immediately went to the most emotional beats.
“Movies are emotion, stories are emotion,” he said.
While plot mechanics matter, the goal is to make audiences feel something powerful and meaningful. He focuses on emotional climaxes that resonate with viewers rather than just advancing the story.
“I’ll always go to what I think to be the most emotional beat. … Those are powerful moments. So I think we’ve done our job as storytellers when people react in the climax and go, ‘Wow, I really felt something there that was powerful and meaningful to me.’”
5. Listen to your characters while writing
Even with detailed outlines, Gilroy reminded us of the importance of staying flexible during the writing process.
“Every day that I sit down to write, I’m trying to listen to what the characters are saying,” he said.
Their confrontations and motivations guide him as he writes action especially, because one entanglement can catapult a character into another confrontation and help maintain tension and pacing.
Listening to your characters can also lead to surprises in your writing. Sometimes you’ll come to a beat when a character almost surprises you with their reaction. You might explore those moments and see where they take you.
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Gilroy told us one regret he has is not trusting his voice earlier in his career. He emphasized that you can’t just write generic action or copy other writers—you need something distinctly yours.
“Only you can tell the story. I can’t tell a story like you,” he said. “Don’t feel like you have to come up with ideas that are like other people’s ideas.” He suggests spending time exploring what makes your writing unique, whether that’s humor, darkness, or something entirely different.
He compares finding your voice to music: “It’s like a music group. That’s Radiohead, that’s Coldplay. That’s whoever. You know who they are. They’re not trying to sound like anybody.”
7. Aim for commercial viability
While advocating for having a unique voice, Gilroy acknowledged the business reality as well.
“Your ideas have to somehow land in the commercial marketplace. If it’s too niche, it won’t sell. So you want to have something in the sense that a wider audience wants to see it,” he said.
“But at the same time, don’t be afraid to write something where you go, ‘I don’t know what this is, this is like nothing else I’ve ever seen.’ That’s okay. If you think there’s an audience for it, then you’re probably right.”
Movie-making is both a business and an art form. There will be an audience for almost anything, but learning what is popular in town and what is currently selling can be a massive benefit to you as a creator.
8. Embrace being socially awkward (if you are)
Unlike directors, Gilroy told us that writers don’t need interpersonal skills to succeed.
“The weird thing about being a writer is you don’t have to have any interpersonal skills,” he said. “Writers are weird people. Who else would sit in a room 12 hours a day for your whole life and play? That’s what I do.”
He also said that writers typically are a bit idiosyncratic, and that’s okay. You still need to know how to work a room and pitch, although there are very few writers (even established ones) who enjoy that.
But the lesson here is that it’s okay to be yourself. It might even help you stand out.
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Gilroy said that talent alone isn’t enough. It helps, but you also need to work really hard.
“You need an incredible work ethic. You really can’t work hard enough, and to compete, it’s just too competitive. You have to work,” he said.
Success requires combining natural ability with relentless dedication. This can look different for everyone. Perhaps you set a daily page or word count goal. Maybe you approach writing like a job shift.
Whatever you find that works for you, stick to it.
10. Find meaning in your work
Beyond entertainment, Gilroy values projects with deeper significance, much like Andor was.
“The main aim was always to entertain, but the show does have a meaning that’s resonating in a way that I’m very proud of,” he said.
For the series, themes of good versus evil, Rebels versus Empire, and authoritarianism versus freedom were baked in. There is a reason this foundation works so well. It’s easy to grasp and universal.
So consider what you care about. These are likely going to be the timeless themes often found in classic stories—the triumph of righteous over bad, the power of love—but, like Gilroy said, only you can tell your version of that story.
Read our full interview with Gilroy for more advice.