Great advice up above! The only thing I would add is... Get involved with your High School Drama club. Take theater classes. You'll meet and become friends with actors and other creative types. Take improv classes if any are available in your city.

Everything above is going to be the best advice you can get: read, write, watch. I can add: Read McKee's Story. Join screenwriting communities like Trigger Street Labs, be kind with everyone in the community--they are there to offer feedback and help you improve (and vice versa). When you write a screenplay, remember that writing is rewriting. And rewriting is NOT revising. It's not changing a few words per page--it's going through with a critical eye, analyzing every scene and making every scene is the best it can be. When that's done, you go through again and make them even better. Good luck! :)

Take every chance and opportunity that comes your way, and don't be afraid to put yourself out there and fail. It's the only way you'll learn.

Thanks, Scott! And thank you to everyone else for your great advice. It really helped a lot, and has given me a new drive to work even harder:)

Hope this now-teenager is inspiration: http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/2010/08/update-emily-hagins.html http://www.indymogul.com/post/14009/interview-teenage-director-emily-hagins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Hagins It helps if you are in a supportive environment.

I find that the best way to start out is to mimic/emulate your favorite pieces of cinema or television. If you love cool action sequences, go out and make a cool action sequence as close to the ones you love as you can. Then when you're done, watch them back to back and realize that yours is nowhere NEAR as good, and then ask yourself why. Then you'll start seeing things you never saw before in your favorite works, and the change in perspective will be invaluable. Also, find a group of people (they don't have to be film people either, just good friends) who are willing to do incredibly stupid things often and without compensation. These are the people who will get things done, and who will follow you fearlessly and without question as you pursue the machinations of your imagination. Also, they'll make it fun. Nothing will kill your love of writing and directing quicker than working with people who aren't any fun. I wish the best of luck to you, and am glad that someone is pursuing their passion early on.

I was just about to post something similar and I have to agree with you here. There is no shame in copying a favorite scene from a film, as long as you're being honest about it and try to add something of your own. Give it a spin, a new angle, something that you felt missing in the original. Then compare and learn.