Actually, I agree with most of you about the reading part, but watching the movies part is subjective for me. However, I would rather be unconventional sometimes than be a strict disciplinarian in improving any form of art, including playing my own Violin in a very special genre.

Screenwriters are NOT special people. They are just "Heart oriented writers" who can bridge the gaps between being poetic, literal, figurative and visual.

Advises available are plenty, but few are really applicable. Write what you feel and feel what you have written by giving adequate gaps. Stop writing from time to time to see if you are not "Men staring at Goats" at times. Beware of "Poser producers" who have no talent but harp about "How the story must be written because it succeeded in one way when previously it was made into a movie".

James Cameron, the master that he is and is considered to be, recently was approached by an Astronomer about an anomaly in his great hit Titanic when he was in the middle of making its three D version. So, the Astronomer wrote to Cameron "The star constellation you have shown on that particular night when the Titanic sunk in the ocean, in 1912, is impossible for us to see it at that spot in the night sky that same time". So, I believe (Someone can confirm this to me, if I am right or wrong about this news), Cameron corrected this to prove how much of a perfectionist he is in his craft.

But one thing about Avatar, the great revenue earner -- Did anybody else notice these flaws in the movie?

A) When Grace and Jake Sully are first sent to Pandora they are both in their Blue Avatars and their original bodies are inside the laying down KIOSKS where they SLEEP on one side to wake up on the other. But when the entire Helicopter range of army arrives they do so as "Humans", not as Avatars. Is this possible?
B) Even if a person is shot dead in the Pandora side of the Avatar's story, the person's body, mind and psyche on the other side would still be intact and function alright.

Any thoughts on the above?
JAG R

Quoted from Nomad You don't have to watch movies in order to be a good story teller, and that's what a screenwriter is.

Can't really go with this - and this is really the difference isn't it? If I just wanted to tell a story, I'd tell it in a magazine, blog, book, to my mate(s) in the pub.

Doesn't telling a story through a visual medium make it a different form of storytelling, and doesn't understanding that visual medium make you more effective at telling a story through it? How can you understand it if you don't partake in it?

BTW I watched 'Stryker' last night. Written by none other than the great Howard R  Cohen. Yes. You got it - he also wrote 'Care Bears' and 'Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer'. What a man.

End of story -- "Tell the story".

I've been to 3 movies over the last thirty years.

I rarely watch ANY T.V or rent movies to watch.

I pull from my mind what it is I want to write. No pre-conceived formulas, no "stamped" pattern that makes my writing fit in a certain box.

I haven’t written that way, I wont write that way and I think all some writers do, having read many scripts here, is try and recreate the next fashionable script based on XXX at the box office.

Format, I read about, Rules to writing, I read about and am still reading in order to learn as I go.

I don’t need someone else’s ideas of what sells to dictate my style.

read my scripts. if you like them, then I done my job. If not, there will always be another.

Shawn.....><

Quoted from Grandma Bear Jeff, said this the other day. I'm wondering if that's true. To be honest, I don't really watch very many movies anymore. I used to watch 2-3 every week at the theaters 10 years ago. Now I go to see films about 4 times a year. I am however, an avid book reader. IMO, there just isn't enough time to read all the good books out there. My question is, do you really have to watch a bunch of movies to be a good screenwriter? IMHO, it's all about story telling and the "format" doesn't matter. Again, IMHO, it seems to me that a lot of screenwriters try to emulate other screenplays when they write, rather than just write their story. Too much focus on formula and studying old films. Thoughts?

I reckon it's pretty damn critical to watch movies.

Quoted from Forgive Can't really go with this - and this is really the difference isn't it? If I just wanted to tell a story, I'd tell it in a magazine, blog, book, to my mate(s) in the pub. Doesn't telling a story through a visual medium make it a different form of storytelling, and doesn't understanding that visual medium make you more effective at telling a story through it? How can you understand it if you don't partake in it?

Scripts follow a different format than magazines, blogs, books, or talking to mates in pubs.  That's the difference.  The story is still being told.

Understanding the visual medium helps make you more effective, sure.  But you don't have to go see every movie in order to understand it.