Is going to film school for Screenwriting a waste of time and money?

I'm in film school, specializing in Editing. I really enjoy this, but more than that I am passionate about screenwriting. I decided Editing over this because of the job outlook for Screenwriting. I figured, "I can always screenwrite. I don't need to go to graduate school for that." Maybe, the same argument could be made for editing. Would it be so bad to change my specialty to Screenwriting? Would the job outlook be so bad? Would it be a waste of time and money?|||You're right; you can always write a screenplay. And there's no school or degree necessary, you just need a good imagination, a thick skin and the inability to take 'no' for an answer.





On the other hand, a good editor needs to have some chops (and the ability to smack George Lucas on the back of the head every time he tries to put in yet another idiotic transition!). Stick with editing to pay the bills, and screenwriting to build your retirement.





Remember: any idiot can be a screenwriter.|||I find the process of editing very much like screenwriting, in that you are using a series of images to tell a story. It's said that editing is the final story telling process of a film (unless you're George Lucas).





Comparing the two for job opportunities is an apples to oranges proposition. A editing job is done when the footage (or the bulk of it) is completed and you start the assembly process. Screenwriting creates the initial blueprint that the footage has now been captured from. It's not an issue of job prospect as much as it is an issue of getting that script produced.





You are correct in assuming that you can't teach the guts of writing but a screenwriting minor perhaps would give you the structural skill sets that seem to be lacking in many of the first time writers out there trying for their first sale.





As far as screenwriting goes, many are called, few are chosen, mostly because they suck and don't have the skill or the talent to get better.|||Stick with editing, even the Job outlook for that is slim, theres a millions people out there that want to be a screen writer and only a handfull of jobs, putting all your eggs in that basket is very risky indeed.