First, “author.” “Author” is a title we easily give novelists and playwrights, rarely screenwriters. But in the strict sense of “originator,” the screenwriter, as creator of setting, characters, and story, is an author. For the test of authorship is knowledge. A true author, no matter the medium, is an artist with godlike knowledge of his subject, and the proof of his authorship is that his pages smack of authority.
