“There are no screenwriting rules”

No matter what you have read or may have heard. Perhaps the source is a so-called screenwriting ‘guru.’ Maybe it’s a friend. A member of your writer’s group. Whoever it is, if they tell you there are screenwriting rules… they are flat-out wrong.

There are no rules.

Why do we know this? Because there is no universally accepted codification of how to write a screenplay.

Sure, there are tons of books, webinars, seminars, classes, downloads, columns, tweets, and blog posts. And there may very well be people who claim this…