I agree one key is to make the story personal. If the characters' story matters to you, then it has a better shot of mattering to your audience.

If it doesn't matter to you, why write it?

Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture is extremely personal- some critics have gone so far to say it's autobiographical, which I would totally agree with. And it's been produced. I also want to add that the film is about a very early twentysomething suffering post-college existential affairs in the 21st century - something that by the very nature of it's topic appeals to only a small percentage of an "audience." Granted, it was an indie with little budget and probably didn't make much but the film has garnered its filmmakers more recognition than any unproduced screenwriting hack can imagine.

I think the lesson is that film is a lot more dynamic than we give it credit for and frankly, with anything one creates, it's impossible to perceive what it's reception would be like. Like Paul Thomas Anderson once said about his film, There Will Be Blood, it's most important to focus on crafting an exceptional story - everything else is up to gods, so to speak.

i'm doing some script reading for a major film/screenplay festival, and the one thing i can say for certain is this:

do NOT bore the reader. or, bore the reader at your own risk.

it's hard to understate how essential it is to give people a reason to keep turning the pages -- conflict, conflict, conflict, conflict.

Writing one's own story is a bigger factor than I think many of us appreciate. When you haven't written your own story yet, your inner need to do so, bursting at the seams, can and often will intrude upon whatever else you might be writing.

Author and teacher Roger MacBride Allen once wrote, "One of my students brought every one of his stories to a screeching halt with an off-the-point diatribe railing against the government for forcing psychotics to take mood-altering drugs. I told him if he was that interested in that subject, he should write a story about that subject, and get it out of his system, rather than injecting it into his otherwise good stories on wholly different topics."

Similarly, in her lecture collection "The Art of Fiction," Ayn Rand taught that a writer stands naked spiritually before the world -- that a writer exerting the utmost effort to produce excellent text will be powerless to prevent his own beliefs, superstitions, prejudices, and internalized contradictions from coming through in his writing. So if he is writing something he doesn't believe, the reader will know it and immersion/interest will be broken.

Kind of has ominous implications for all those screenwriters who come up with the most gruesome torture porn, doesn't it?

Those excerpts from Walter's book are terrific. Do you recommend buying the book?

@Judy: I'll let you know when I finish the book, but so far, it's excellent. I'll be featuring a guest post from Walter this week.

@TUL, What, Alex, and Mike: All good points. I'll do a follow-up post in response on Sunday.