Life & Wisdom Quote by Douglas Wood

Originality, in Douglas Wood's framing, isn't a decorative bonus; it's a gatekeeping standard. The line reads like a writer drawing a hard boundary against the gravitational pull of the industry: proven formulas, familiar arcs, IP-mining, the endless safety of "it tests well". By insisting it's the most important quality in a script, Wood is quietly demoting a lot of the usual measures of "good writing" - polish, structure, even marketability - to second place. That's a provocative hierarchy, and it signals intent: he'd rather wrestle with something alive and strange than perfect something dead on arrival.

The subtext is partly defensive. Writers are constantly asked to be "fresh" while hitting the same beats, to deliver novelty inside a box. Calling originality paramount becomes a way of protecting the work from committee logic: notes that sand down edges, mandates that swap specificity for broad appeal. It also implies a belief that audiences can smell imitation faster than executives admit. Originality isn't just about plot twists; it's about perspective - the sense that a human being with a particular mind made this, not a content machine.

Context matters because "original" has become a marketing slogan and a scarcity. In an era of reboots and algorithmic taste, claiming originality as the highest virtue is almost a small act of cultural resistance. It's also a reminder that scripts don't compete only on craft; they compete on distinctiveness. The script that gets remembered - or even greenlit - often isn't the one that obeys the rules best. It's the one that makes the rules feel newly negotiable.