Don’t believe anything your family tells you about your work. Close friends and family are supportive but not experienced media professionals. Get out of the house and start talking to your peers through writer's groups and forums.
After helping with hundreds of stories and working with countless writers, it's possible to spot the reoccurring issues. Here is some general advice for writers to follow.
Get a clear roadmap as quickly as you can. This isn't about plotting it's about setting out a clear structure. Drawing out the six key beats of your story will help tie everything together.
Don’t make your Hero flawless from start to finish. Remember that the hero has to go on a journey and this isn't just objective i.e. to get the girl or save the world it's also about a spiritual or emotional journey to overcome a weakness or flaw.
have a ticking clock
Get involved with other writers and share your work before you bombard the industry. The reason the industry has such a slush pile is because writers are flooding it with projects that are nowhere near ready.
What characters say and do should reflect their character not simply serve the story. If you can swap dialog from one character to another then why have both characters in the story in the first place.
Learn to take criticism and praise with equal grace and scepticism. It's natural to accept praise and reject criticism but as a writer, you can't afford to.
Have a ticking clock. This count down to oblivion helps to frame the story and gives the hero no choice but to push on. Without a ticking clock the hero has room to breath and take stock - this removes tension.
In action films this ticking clock is the bomb that will go off in 24 hours. In drama it's more subtle and could be, for example, an estranged couple who have to reconcile before a family Christmas. Keeping the story in a confined box with a definite and ever-present deadline is a very effective device to create tension.
get involved with local writers
Show don’t tell. Characters discussing backstory is pretty dull. Although you can talk through a narrator in a novel, there is no such luxury in film or TV - unless there is actually a narrator character (through voice over) but that's the exception not the rule. In a script you have to 'show' as it's a visual medium and plays out in real time. Which is to say that, although you may be showing a scene set in the past, it's still acted out in real time / present tense on screen.
Get into scenes late and leave early. Don't hang about to smell the roses. As per the six key structural beats, establish the scene, have the inciting incident then get on with driving the story forward.
Edit Edit Edit - writing is editing. There is a romantic notion that writers and artists achieve their masterpieces in one take. It's just nonsense. Many projects take years and dozens of rewrites before they are ready.
Don’t be ‘on the nose’ with dialog. Which is to say, avoid having your character talk to the reader or viewer through a conversation on the page. If it's important to convey such information then show it.
Understand the basics of structure then don’t be a slave to it. Once you get the logic of structure you absorb it and it becomes second nature. You can then play with the rules.
don't go easy on your hero
A screenwriter is only one part of a movie making machine. Other people will come to own your work and know it better than you. If you can’t handle that then it's not the industry for you.
Expect rejection - a lot of it! Remember that it’s the project that’s rejected - not you.
Make sure your hero can't turn back. If they can give up and just go home then they surely will when they get to sequences 3 and 4. The hero has to finish what they started.
Avoid the temptation to over plot your story. Having twists and turns is great but if they aren't driven by the decisions of the characters then they can become tiresome and hide the real story.
Have a ticking clock. In action films it's the bomb that will go off in 24 hours. In drama it's more subtle but it could be, for example, an estranged couple who have to reconcile before a family christmas. Keeping the story in a confined box with a definite and ever-present deadline is a very effective device to create tension.
Finally: if you can’t sum up your story in a paragraph not only will you struggle to write it but you’ll also struggle to sell it.
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