The word genius sometimes gets overused and it doesn’t always apply. Not in the case of David Lynch, who has passed away at the age of 78. Lynch was a bona fide genius who changed our cinematic language and discovered new forms of expression. From the revolutionary Eraserhead (1977) to his critically-acclaimed masterworks Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001) to co-creating and being the visionary force behind the beloved TV series Twin Peaks, Lynch’s legacy as an iconoclastic and groundbreaking filmmaker is secure. 

However, Lynch was not just a director…

He was also a writer.

Lynch wrote all of his screenplays to his films (and, in most cases, was the sole writer). He also co-wrote the pilot for Twin Peaks and numerous key episodes of the series. A writer-director through-and-through, Lynch’s worldbuilding and characters always appeared on the page before the cameras rolled.

Jack Nance in "Eraserhead"

The Personal Becomes Narrative

In the mid 1960s, David Lynch enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It was not long before he got romantically involved with another student, Peggy Reavey, whom he soon married and the two had a child. 

They moved to Fairmont in North Philadelphia, a neighborhood filled with poverty and crime. This period would be profoundly trying and depressing for Lynch — a young father and working a day job in a bleak and scary environment — but it would also plant the seeds to what would become his breakthrough film: Eraserhead. 

All of Lynch’s fears and anxieties from his days in Philadelphia fueled the surreal and nightmarish film about a quiet young man living in a dystopian environment as his wife gives birth to a monstrous baby. Even if they’re frequently wrapped in metaphors and uncanny scenarios, Lynch’s stories were always deeply personal and reflected both his inner and outer world.

This is one of the main reasons his scripts and films have such a strong voice. Lynch always made use of the personal in his narratives.

Ian Buchanan in "Twin Peaks"

Sharing Dreams, Solving Mysteries

As a storyteller, Lynch was brave enough to open himself up and reveal to us his most private and profound obsessions. He shared his dreams, his fears, his desires. This is the thread that connects all of his work and it’s why his fans are so deeply engaged by his films. Lynch was trying to solve the mystery of himself and he used the art form of cinema to help him in this pursuit. 

While trying his best to work within the Hollywood system via studio projects like The Elephant Man (1980) and Dune (1984), Lynch fully reclaimed himself as an artist when he wrote and directed Blue Velvet in the mid 1980s. 

Using the classic film noir framework as a spring board for his darker and more individualistic preoccupations, Lynch’s Blue Velvet is essential viewing for anyone interested in learning how to simultaneously utilize and subvert established cinematic tropes. Jeffrey Beaumont (played by Kyle MacLachlan) is a young and upstanding man who is drawn into a dark underworld of debauchery and danger and is very much a stand-in for Lynch himself. 

Lynch would once again create a stand-in character via Special Agent Dale Cooper (also played by Kyle MacLachlan). The protagonist of Twin Peaks, Cooper is a virtuous FBI agent who — in addition to enjoying a good cup of coffee and cherry pie — travels to some extremely dark places while investigating the murder of Laura Palmer. Like the quaint town of Lumberton in Blue Velvet, the primary location and namesake of Twin Peaks is idyllic on the surface, but festering with madness beneath.

This is a theme Lynch would travel to again and again in his work: Lost Highway (1997) and Mulholland Drive (2001) both being framed as mysteries in which the protagonists are slowly pulled into a darker reality in which reality itself falls into question. Not only did Lynch write vivid characters, memorable dialogue and exhibit masterful worldbuilding, he knew balancing his avant garde leanings with a crackerjack mystery could make his stories more accessible (while still being challenging and extremely provocative).

Laura Harring and Naomi Watts in "Mulholland Drive"

Drafting Blueprints, Catching Ideas

As far out as his work sometimes got, Lynch had an extremely straightforward and workmanlike approach. In addition to being a proponent of outlining and mapping out his stories with index cards, Lynch viewed storytelling not unlike a detective slowly and soundly putting the pieces together.

Below are several of Lynches quotes on screenwriting in which he reveals himself to be a craftsman more interested in results than waxing poetic on the subject:

“How do you learn to write a screenplay? Most every single thing is common sense. So if you get an idea, you sort of see the idea and if someone said ‘Okay, before you can make that idea into a film… First put it into words.’ And so you try to make the words say what the idea is, and it’s a tricky business, but it’s not that difficult.”

“If you’re just getting the ideas down for yourself — so you don’t forget them — that’s a little bit of a script right there. It’s just the skeleton enough so you don’t forget stuff and to help you see the form of it.”

“You catch ideas. A script is pretty important. It’s an organization of ideas and many things are worked out in the script form, but like they say, it’s a blueprint for a house… It helps you find the structure and organize things to a certain degree and it goes always bit by bit. You don’t see the whole thing at once and the way it unfolds is anybody’s guess. It’s kind of a magical thing, but eventually it gets there.”

“Ideas are the number one thing. If you have the first idea that’s the most critical one and then I say it’s like bait in fishing. That idea — if you focus on it — it’ll draw other ideas in. But you don’t know, like fishing, you have to have patience. You don’t know how long it’ll take, but if you keep focusing on it and wiggle the line a little bit, it’ll bring them in.”

David Lynch was an artist but also a craftsman. Anyone who hopes to make screenwriting their profession should have a similar mindset. Movies are communal dreams and nightmares, but they need to be constructed beforehand.

Lynch likened screenwriting to drafting a blueprint and coming up with ideas as fishing. He saved the complexity for his characters and stories while he was busy doing what he needed to do to create the framework for his expression.

A true master. He will be greatly missed.