Been thinking about this, and the other comments that effectively dismiss the "Guru's" because they have not had very much of their own writing turned into movies. I get the point, on some level it makes sense, after all, Blake Snyder - writer of Blank Check and little else. It maybe worth pointing out that Blake Snyder has also had lots of things optioned, though some might say they cannot of been that great.

Some names for you...

Alex Ferguson
Arsene Wenger
Jose Mourinho

They will mean nothing to most people outside of Europe but these guys are the three most successful Managers (coaches) in the history of the English Football Premier League, in the case of Alex Ferguson he is arguably the greatest manager in the history of English football.

Guess what they have in common? Neither of them were very good players, Jose Mourinho was  not even a capable player and yet today he is the highest paid person in the world of football earning $26 Million a year.

I bet there are examples in American sports too, and not just sport, look at the worlds best business "Guru's", these are men and women who coach and train some of the richest businessmen in the world and yet they are themselves "failed" businesspeople.

Are teachers "failed" professionals? Surely they must be? If they were any good they would be history professors, business owners, authors etc.. Why should any student listen to someone who has "failed"?

The fact is that some people just make great teachers than they do professionals, it does not mean however that they know any less. I was catching up on some Pilar Alessandra podcasts this week and on one her guest was Zach Helm, now this is a guy who is carving out a pretty respectable career for himself since selling the first spec he wrote. He is someone who uses her services now, that's right, a real screenwriter with movies under his belt still learning from Pliar who? the woman who has not had anything filmed. He must get something out of it, you gotta think that students of Syd Field and Blake Snyder also get something out of it.

How do you judge a good teacher? Is it on their work or is it on their students work? Because lots of professionals seem to hold these "guru's" in very high regard.

Of course none of this means that you should listen to these people, nor does it mean that you will learn anything from these people. I am only writing this because I feel that the excuse that these guys are hardly a good source of information purely because they are not brilliant screenwriters themselves is incredibly disingenuous and more than a little unfair, they obviously are very good teachers. If people want to dismiss them then fair enough but at least come up with a better reason why.