One of the most common pieces of writing advice is "write what you know," but how many of us truly know what it's like, say, to be chased by heavily-armed intergalactic space whales? Most of us regular-types shy away from extreme violence in our everyday lives, which makes writing action-packed movies tricky, if we are strictly sticking with what we "know."
ScreenwritingU sat down with The Secret Life of Pets screenwriter Brian Lynch to find out his secret to balancing lightness and darkness in family-focused movies. But before we could get into the nitty-gritty of storytelling, Lynch revealed to us that he was almost a cartoonist – not a screenwriter. Ironically enough, a can of cat food changed the course of his career forever.
