Seems like if the writer is also editing the film, the may as well be directing it too.

I teach a History of American Screenwriting class. In some ways, the earliest days of movies [first three decades] had a similar dynamic as TV nowadays: where the writer-producer is 'king' being responsible for creating multiple episodes, and directors were more hired hands to execute the writer's vision. Early movie production outfits focused on creating a lot of content and for that they needed stories. And for that they needed writers.

That's fascinating, Scott. It's such a new medium, it's interesting how locked-in certain ideas and forms are. The screenplay form itself is presented as if it's an immutable thing, but it's actually quite odd and idiosyncratic. I keep reading, 'Don't write anything that can't be shot,' then I met with a producer who said, 'you've got to write a lot of stuff here that can't be shot, just to communicate with the readers--that's your job, communicating with readers (ie, at the networks) not with the viewers. You talk to to the director. Director talks to the viewers."