Narayanan Krishnan is an award-winning chef in the taj group of hotels but after feeding an old destitute man he quits his job to help the un-cared

I don’t know if I’m qualified to give you that kind of advice — I’m quite new to this myself — just maybe not as new to life as you…

If I was able to give advice to my sixteen year old self, it would be this (and given it’s a broad question this will be a broad answer…) :

Read as many screenplays,and plays (and books) as you can. Critique them. Discover what you like, and what you don’t like, but most importantly, understand why.

Read as many books as you can on the craft of screenwriting/ writing. There are some good ones out there, and possibly some not so good — take what you will from them, but understand that the only RIGHT way is YOUR way… you’ve got to find that yourself. Blake Snyder’s ‘Save the Cat!’ and Robert McKee’s ‘Story’ are very popular, and that’s probably because they both provide very useful advice. ‘Save the Cat!’, if you haven’t already read it, is great for understanding structure, at least to the ‘Hollywood’ paradigm. Snyder is VERY strict on hitting certain beats on certain pages, McKee on the other hand is completely against this notion, suggesting that there needs to be a minimum of three major reversals in a screenplay…. where you put them is up to you…

There’s a bunch of interviews with screenwriters on the web, always worth a watch…. some recurring themes I’ve found in these interviews: 1. No one knows what’s going to work. 2. Kill your darlings (they’re the parts of your screenplay that you might think are really cool but don’t actually add anything to your story — not your friends and family;)) 3. Write as often as you can — and like an exercise program to get fit, getting into a regular routine will probably be very beneficial… and THINKING about writing is not actually writing. 4. Write what you care about… not necessarily what you know… of course you need to know your subject, but if you don’t really care about it then no one else will.

You sound like you’re on the right path — finishing school is definitely a good way to go. In terms of going to film school, I couldn’t advise either way — I’ve only done theater/ performance courses post High School, but met a few great writers there which lead me to want to write. I think one of the major benefits of film school would be to get the opportunity to meet other writers, Directors, Producers — it’s how a lot of the greats got a foot in the door down the track…

Anyway, I’ve waffled enough, and have to stop procrastinating over working on my own screenplay. I hope what I’ve said is of some worth.

Best of luck.