Screenwriting : Does screenwriting all boil down to an innate ability? by Phillip E. Hardy, Prolifique

Story telling is an innate skill but it can be learned. Screenwriting has to be learned but once the basics are mastered it can become innate. The first is the foundation for the second. Although I've read "screenplays" that needed help with both.

To be a game changer, you got "it" DNA writing genes. know instinctively when to zig and zag, do stuff on the page that becomes a brand.

But there are thousands of average screenwriters making a decent living for a short time - say 5 to 10 years - before they gotta do something else like teach to make $.

There are skill levels that can not be reached, it seems to me, by any form of study. The dialog of Mamet, Tarantino or Sorkin, for example. But competence can be learned.

I think it's a percentage type thing.

You have to have SOME innate ability but it has to be coupled with an ability to learn and develop that ability + hard work/dedication.

As an example, you could be born seven and a half feet tall, muscular and agile. That doesn't equal a basketball player. The ability is there but it takes learning, development, hard work, etc. to then become a basketball player.

Some people might be 10% ability and 90% development of it and become successful.

Others might have 75% ability and 0% development and never become successful.

I think anyone can tell a story... especially as a screenwriter because of the fact that film is open to any type of stories, structure and narrative. Actuality stories like biographies can easily be written by someone who learns the technicalities because all it will be is a retelling of events. Writing personal experience into a film, or a great story someone tells another person about their personal stories... the sources are endless and the education available on line... but most importantly we all have one innate ability that can make anyone a great storyteller, dreams.

Dave Trottier and I had this very discussion a few years back and we reached no definitive answer. I'm pretty much of the opinion that creativity is basically an innate. quality. He was of the opinion that it could be taught. He wrote a little booklet called Double Your Creativity in 3 Hours (he sent me a copy to edit.) I remain skeptical.

In my humble opinion, I believe that every child is a born creative (watch little kids at play) but by the time they get through school - most, if not all, of that creativity has been beat outta' 'em. A few fortunate (or unfortunates) manage to hold on to it.

I don't know the answer.

I used to think, “If I can do this, anyone can.” Now that I’m a little deeper down the rabbit hole, I see those who truly excel have a high tolerance for self-awareness, and very few of us can manage that. That drive to push and explore yourself is definitely innate.

Passion and talent still need to be fine-tuned and coached.

I can train 12 hours a day, and it'll make me faster, but there's no way I'll ever have Usain Bolt speed.

The thing is we are writing with a camera. Making pictures.

Fitzgerald and Hemingway flunked as Screenwriters but they're both considered great Novelists.

after 10,000 hours of practice (not just doing). You will be the best you can be and better than 99.9999% of the world. Will you be unique? Probably not.

Creativity comes from somewhere inaccessible. It is like the ability to care for strangers. I can help, I may be able to prevent harm. But I can never be a nurse.

I believe to be truly great you are born with it. We can be as good as we can be. That will be enough for some people. That will get some scripts sold.

In a nutshell. You are born with raw material. If it can be formed into great artist, luck you. But it may actually be the raw material that makes a great doctor.

"You don't have a choice about how much talent you are born with. You do have a choice about whether or not to develop the talent you have." -Judith Weston

Do the best you can with what you got.

The gods only help those who help themselves. The Muses come to those who do the work. If They see you waiting around, They will move on. They will find someone whose fingers are already typing, someone whose pen is already writing, someone whose brush is already painting.

Hard work and elbow grease go a lot farther than all talent and no drive. Just Sayin..

That’s a good point. Most filmmakers would rather work with someone who plays nice and hits deadline than an artiste who slaves to perfect every detail.

Nothing is a substitute for hard work. But imagine the god like creatures that have talent and work hard.

A complete opposite to some people in my family who bone lazy and dumb as a sack of hammers.

I spent DECADES thinking that I wasn't smart enough, wasn't talented enough, wasn't good enough... There are stories that didn't get told, and films that didn't get made, because of it. I wonder where I'd be now if I had just done the work instead of thinking about all the stupid shit that made me insecure.

It doesn't matter whether you were born with it and you do it, or if you weren't born with it but you do it anyway. If you want something, anything in this world, you gotta go after it, and then you gotta take it.

Study. Do the work. Do it the best you can. Get better at it. Don't get it perfect, just get it done. Don't think too much about it. After that, whatever will be will be.

10000 hours