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I'm a fan of the motivational philosophy of famed basketball coach John Wooden. He's talking about basketball, but what he says is applicable to writing. Here's his thoughts on skill.
"Skill means being able to execute all of your job, not just part of it. It's true whether you're an athlete or an attorney, a surgeon or a sales rep, or anything else. (Or a screenwriter) You'd better be able to execute properly and quickly. That's skill. As much as I value experience, and I value it greatly, I'd rather have a lot of skill and little experience than a lot of experience and little skill."
Back to me now...
Skill as a screenwriter means learning to take criticism, learning to recognize the difference between good and bad criticism and learning to implement the good. Skill is rewriting and revising, cutting scenes and lines that don't work (even though you love them), coming up with a new beginning or a new ending. Skill is having the discipline to stick with a project, to see it through, to do 5 or 10 drafts until it's right.
I've known 19-year-olds with skill and 35-year-olds without it. Trust me. It's priceless.
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