Story+PD: Keep learning and iterating

There are many teachers, books, videos, courses for better storytelling. No matter what framework or approach you find (Save the Cat? Three acts? Five acts? etc) the important thing is to be an active student. You can always be soaking and studying great stories but you also need to be creating, prototyping,  and getting feedback on and editing your work.  

Read. Watch. Write. Collaborate. Critique.

As Franklin Leonard advised curious screenwriters in his recent Reddit AMA, if you want to get better at your craft and get your story made, “Read scripts. Watch movies. Write pages.” (Leonard is the founder of The Blacklist, which is a widely used website rating and highlighting the best yet-unproduced screenplays circulating but up for grabs for by Hollywood producers.) 

And the other universal advice given to every screenwriter who asks how to get their movie made, besides “Hone your craft” is to “Network.” Find other storytellers. Offer to read and critique their work. Help make their stories and skills better. They’ll help you do the same. And never stop.