Selecting a Story
One of the most difficult decisions facing you as a filmmaker is choosing a story you are capable of telling. This usually means choosing a story relevant to your life experiences while having significance to an audience. Keep in mind that successful stories aren't always for all audiences. A case in point is films that compete at film festivals such as Sundance. For instance, the target audience of a gay story will primarily be gay with cross over from art house theater patrons.
Beginning writers often pick stories with too broad a scope. If it is a story about the Vietnam War, they try to cover the entire war. Also, they might pick such a story because they thing it will be a blockbuster. All too frequently, new writers try to create duplicate stories of blockbusters. The production cycle from completion of development to release often takes three or more years. During this time, trends in audience preference will have changed.
New writers should focus on story ideas that have relevance to their lives. For instance, if a writer has experience overcoming a substance abuse problem, then they will have some powerful concepts regarding character motivation. If they combine this story knowledge and their drive for writing the story along with good story telling techniques, then they will create meaningful stories.
Stories, like music, are best when they come from the heart. Story telling is like a good piece of music. It has to ring true to the minds of the audience. If the audience perceives it as fake, it will fail. It is also important as a beginning writer to realize that your audience isn't made of viewers in a theater. Instead, it usually is professional readers at a production company or agency. Most of these readers are organized in a union and look at over 100 scripts per day.
A simple beginning role is to write personal and meaningful stories and most of all, flesh out your characters and storyline. Above all, keep it interesting and motivated. Your characters must always have a reason for doing things. Unmotivated action will cause a reader to stop reading your script immediately. If your story and characters have a strong meaning to you, then likely you will write with a great deal of care and compassion.