Action: Why Every Writer is a Screenwriter

I have written stories in a few different genres, and every time I get to a point in my editing where I realize a lack of action.

Or I find myself telling instead of showing a character is this way or that way.

Or I neglect the scene as a whole such as where a conversation is taking place and how the space should frame those speaking and add to the effect.

This is why I have evolved into thinking that every writer wears the screenwriter hat–and not even just that one, but the director hat, the costuming hat, and about ten others. Lighting. Staging. Choreography.

Most stories need to be full-scale productions built on cinematic pacing. Otherwise, you’re story’s stuck in the Shire, right?

Don’t get stuck in the Shire.

I know I should not make fun of someone as epic as Tolkien and he certainly came up with a cinematic series overall. But still. It’s funny that sometimes we writers are so excited to tell the story that we walk around it as if trying to treasure all the build-up when the story just needs to happen already!