You can't do "that" in Screenwriting.

I believe there are three things necessary to write a good script.

1. The imagination to envision a story worth being told.
2. The ability to design the story into satisfying entertainment.
3. The knowledge of craft to put it in script form.

I think this could be said even more simply.

1. Story & Character
2. Structure
3. Screenwriting

Out of these three skills you must master to be allowed to call yourself a screenwriter, which one do you think is the least important to take a note on? Have your answer? Ok, the answer is......screenwriting.

Yes, stop shaking your head. I'm dead serious. I know what you're thinking, how could the skill that encompasses spelling, grammar, proper format, style, hell the words on the stinkin' page, be the least important???

Well, actually this post isn't really about that. So, if you can't answer that question yourself, no part of me is interested in reading your perfectly formatted amazingly worded boring as hell script.

Now my point is, how come the least important of the three is always the most important when it comes to not "breaking the rules." My guess is because since the only true rule of the first two is to actually just have them, that leaves a shit ton of rules in the "screenwriting" skill that "instructors" can harp about not breaking.

On a side note, this post's theme is cinematically portrayed in the film Adaptation by writer Charlie Kaufman. If you want to be a screenwriter and you haven't seen it. Add it to the top of the Netflix queue right now.

Where was I? Oh right, breaking the rules. Now I'm not just knocking all the script consultants who've written books about the things your script must and musn't have in order to sell. I actually read 'em all because my brain is a sponge that never gets full.

I only want you to think like me, which basically goes, "thank you very much for the advice, I learned a lot, now I'm going to go do whatever the hell I want." Yes, I know it sounds selfish and self-centered, aren't all writers like that? But if you understand what it means to be an artist, then you completely get what I'm saying.

I hate the term "blueprint" and it drives me crazy to hear anyone say "you can't use voiceover, flashbacks, or dream sequences." I'm an artist, so screw you because I'll use them if they damn well make my art better!!!

Well, see that's the rope. The reason so many Academy Award winning scripts (Casablanca, American Beauty, Citizen Kane)  use screenplay elements that the gurus tell you to avoid is because they're challenging to do well. The gurus want to make it seem so easy to write a script, because who would buy a book about screenwriting that says its really really hard.

So, don't listen to anyone tell you that you can't do "that" in screenwritng, because they're just trying to keep you from winning that first Oscar