What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

[cynicide]

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses as writers, and anyone serious about writing works hard to improve those soft spots. I'm curious what you've worked on & gotten better at.

Personally, I've gotten way, way better at structure. I'm able to point my plot in the direction it needs to go, and I don't have pages of tangents, or irrelevant details that are lovingly phrased and completely useless. It's nice to realize you know how to give your script momentum, and how to fix it when you don't have that forward motion.

What improvements are you most proud of?

[peasblossom]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

This is similar to how my work has evolved. Instead of writing all the points on the main character's journey, I now seem to know more of what to include, what to just imply, and what is better to just leave out.

[SuperScribe]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

I upgraded from Final Draft 5 to Final Draft 8, which means I can print to PDF.

[emily blake]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

I stopped trying to write fast and started to write better.

[johnmonster]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

For me it was when it finally sank in that screenwriting is no place for florid prose, character inner voice, or lengthy descriptions. It was an epiphany.
And instead of feeling restrained, I felt free.

That was an awesome moment.

[Biohazard]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

I'm going to say it's my ability to realize why my bad scripts are bad, what exactly is wrong with them and how to fix it.

There is still a lot of room for improvement, however.

[Terrance Mulloy]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

Strengths:

Dialogue
Action scenes
Scene descriptions
Character
Inner voice (prose?)
Conceptualization

Weaknesses:

Plot
Structure
Theme
Grammar
Ability to write fast
Eating way too much take out
Video games
Fat chicks
Wasting time on Done Deal

[SoCalScribe]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

What improvements are you most proud of?

The ability to tell a better story. When I first started out, I wrote what I thought were good stories, but in retrospect were often cliched, boring, not cinematic, and just generally uninteresting. What I'm most proud of now is my ability to objectively look at something (including my own work) and assess whether it's a fresh, marketable, interesting story, or whether it's lacking in some way.

[Signal30]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

The minute "Nothing Matters And So What if it Did" kicked in. Seriously? Tell your story. Tell it in your voice. Fuck McKee and his wriggling wannabes. Rules are for followers, not leaders. When you play by the rules, you become anonymous.

[Midnite]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

Being able to recognize the boring bits early on so that I don't hafta go back and edit them out during rewrites....My problem now is how to sell a 10 page script.

Midnite

[hscope]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

The minute "Nothing Matters And So What if it Did" kicked in. Seriously? Tell your story. Tell it in your voice. Fuck McKee and his wriggling wannabes. Rules are for followers, not leaders. When you play by the rules, you become anonymous.

Saved me a post.

[Fortean]

My Biggest Improvements

As I never upgraded from Final Draft 5 and instead used Movie Magic Screenwriter, I have had more time to concentrate on learning how to film my own projects. Knowing how to put together a film adds to my writing skills, for I understand better how to keep costs down and to simplify the production of a scene. Translating the screenplay of my first film feature into Canadian French also helped to simplify the dialog by finding a few choice words to express something that is easily understood, in both English and French, (fewer English idioms and without dumbing-down the dialog). Instead of wasting too much time sending Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files to unresponsive production companies, I can submit my film to festivals, (where it does get seen), and attract the attention of other production companies, (who may ask what else I'm working on in the way of screenplays).

[mikeb]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

Strengths:

Dialogue
Action scenes
Scene descriptions
Character
Inner voice (prose?)
Conceptualization

Weaknesses:

Plot
Structure
Theme
Grammar
Ability to write fast
Eating way too much take out
Video games
Fat chicks
Wasting time on Done Deal

"Fat chicks" is only a problem if she prefers to be on top.

[Hamboogul]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

I used to sit in front of my computer all day, thinking that if I wasn't staring at Final Draft, then I wasn't writing.

Realizing that a lot of writing takes place away from the computer helped a lot. Now I do equal parts writing/staring at a computer and walking around or exercising. I find that this has helped my writing tremendously.

[NoTalentAssClown]

Re: What's been your biggest improvement as a screenwriter?

Strengths:

Dialogue
Action scenes
Scene descriptions
Character
Inner voice (prose?)
Conceptualization

Weaknesses:

Plot
Structure
Theme
Grammar
Ability to write fast
Eating way too much take out
Video games
Fat chicks
Wasting time on Done Deal

You...must be my shadow...