A hard lesson for writers to learn is that in screenwriting, story matters more than writing. I'm a perfect example of this. I've collected a long list of compliments on my "writing" from agents and producers over the years, yet I've never had a feature produced (I've had three shorts produced), though half a dozen have been optioned and several came damn close. My weakness, however, kills me: an act three in story structure that isn't cranked up enough. This is something I continue to work on. But it's a very different storytelling strategy than what I'm used to as a playwright or novelist, forms more natural to me in which the writing itself matters more than in screenwriting. All the same, screenwriting remains the most "fun" writing that I do, even as I still try to conquer this first major studio sale. It's fun, I think, because I imagine it more easily, I "run the movie" in my head as I'm writing. I'm very excited about the new script I just started -- the life of the serial monogamist, after all -- and in its outline I think I have a cranked up third act. We'll see!
This term I'm working with several advanced students with the same challenge: fine screenwriters who need to learn how to crank up the last half of a screenplay story.
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