#18 is so very true. How many writers (myself included) have spend WAY too long on a script/story/whatever fussing over insignificant details when we could have been creating new work. The ability to know when to let go of your story is a vastly underrated skill.

"Story is TESTING, not refining." I love that. Dialogue and character and theme...those are elements you can refine to make great. But when it comes to story and concept and plotting, your idea pretty much works or it doesn't. And no amount of tweaking will change that...so move on and try something else.

#14 is by far the concept that speaks to me. Movies have an unparalleled ability to suspend our disbelief, but in my opinion, the difference between good and great scripts are the characters whose stories we've not seen before and need to follow. Why do need to follow them? Because the writer harbored and developed a character whose journey she so related to and wanted to share that the prospect of hundreds of hours writing and rewriting could not diminish the inspirational flame. If a writer can’t succinctly summarize what that flame is, it shouldn’t be written, far less made.