Rage Against The Page

For a long time I held aloft, above all others, Michael Hauge's one-word answer to the question:  What makes a screenplay work? EMOTION . On the first page of  Writing Screenplays That Sell , Michael explains: People do not go to the movies so they can see the characters on the screen laugh, cry, get frightened, or get turned on.  They go to have those experiences themselves.The reason that movies hold such a fascination for us, the reason the art form has been engrossing and involving audiences for close to a century, is because it provides an opportunity to experience emotion. ... All filmmakers, therefore, have a single goal: to elicit emotion in an audience. That was then; this is now. Now, I understand there's something loftier.  Something more seminal.  It was there all along.  I just never bothered to follow the breadcrumbs all the way to the source. It's true: eliciting emotion in your audience makes a screenplay work. So, how do you c...