Ok, this one’s a no-brainer. Off course you need to seek knowledge. Right? It’s bleeding obvious.
Not to me, it wasn’t.
I read my first book about writing long after I finished several books, scripts and scenarios. Linda Seger’s “How to make a good script great”. See the problem here? I already thought I was good, I just needed to be GRRREAT!
Stupid.
Now I try to read a book now and then. I don’t have a formal education in comics, screenwriting or novel writing, I need to find things out for myself. I used to think art wasn’t something you could learn, you either had or you didn’t. But that’s not entirely true now, is it? I’m sure studying a craft helps. Or research. Just be aware, research is often a socially acceptable form of procrastination.
I picked up “How to make a good script great”. and re-read a few months ago, and it was all new to me. Couldn’t remember a damn thing. Like a post-it note on a wall, knowledge tends to peel off after a while. So another trick is to tell others out what you learn. You might think I’m talking to you here. I’m not. I’m talking to myself, to remind me; Read a book, stupid!