Richard Bach said: we teach best what we most need to learn. I taught a screenwriting class for a few years. A ten week evening course, 3 hours a week. The course detail didn’t change very much. I covered my usual schedule and resources. But I would use up-to-date examples from recent TV and films to highlight the specific areas of screenwriting craft that we were studying.
Gradually, I understood what Richard Bach meant with his quote. Teaching the screenwriting class taught me something new on a topic that I already know a lot about. I would regularly come away from my classes invigorated by ‘new’ knowledge; some extra level of insight or understanding, or just a neat reminder to embrace a certain technique that I had long overlooked in my own writing (probably dismissing it as too ‘basic’ or not interesting enough).
There’s a danger of being complacent to what we think we know. Specifically with regard to the world of story, we carry around a lot of knowledge in our minds, but if we’re not practising the craft or applying it to our writing on a regular basis, then everything we know can become misguided opinion, misplaced judgement, half-remembered tips and tricks.
I was an industry script reader for many years, thinking then that I knew everything. But the craft of story, from a reader’s POV, is much different to what a writer has to consider. A script reader easily and gladly points out perceived errors or missteps, but a writer faces a million different decisions as they develop their story. When I started to write my own scripts, I became immediately aware that my life as a script reader was a smug but unsound space to throw criticism and ridicule. I had to re-set my story sensibilities. In the wise words of Yoda, I had to unlearn what I had learned.
There’s a lot of benefits to keep learning what you already know. Going over the basics. Reading that book on three-act structure again. Analysing your favourite movie, or breaking down why the latest flop didn’t succeed. It enables you to become a specialist in your field. Having all the insights and advice readily available, fresh at your fingertips, instantly equipped to provide support to colleagues, or a writers’ room, or friends.
Does that mean writing becomes easier? Hahaha (x10), hell no. But that’s why it’s good to always try to improve. Keep reading. Watching. Writing. Keep on learning what you already know.
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