THERE ARE NO RULES TO SCREENWRITING. Only techniques.

Hands up everyone who wants to become a professional screenwriter. If you just want to do it as a hobby, that’s fine, but it’s the people with their hands up I’m talking to.

If you want to become a professional screenwriter, you must learn the techniques, and then demonstrate that you know the techniques in everything you write.

William Goldman can write scripts in texta on toilet paper, and people in the industry will read them. This is because he has ALREADY DEMONSTRATED that he has mastered the techniques, and that the script is worth reading.

If you or I write a script in texta on toilet paper, we aren’t announcing our rule-breaking, rebel status to the industry – we’re just announcing that we’re amateurs.