It’s natural for us to look for ways to make any task easier, and people who want to write scripts are no exception. Most will agree that coming up with a sound storyline is the hardest part of the process, and that’s where the search usually is concentrated. The result is that people latch on to things like the three-act structure and the hero’s journey as possible prescriptions.

In case you’re not familiar with these two, here’s a brief summary. The three-act structure suggests that for a feature film, the first act is twenty to thirty minutes long and introduces your protagonist in his or her normal world and then introduces something that propels the protagonist into a new situation. For example, a college professor has a seemingly happy marriage, but then his wife disappears and he commits to finding out what happened to her. The second act is twice as long and contains all the escalations of the conflict, leading to a “moment of truth” at the end of the second act. The third act is roughly the same length as the first act, and features the resolution of the story.

The hero’s journey also fits this pattern but more specifically is about a hero (male or female) who goes on a quest, finds a mentor who goes along for part of the trip, encounters various tests and helpers, has a re-birth, and then goes on to achieve the goal. It has more steps than that, and it’s based on the pattern that underpins many myths and folk tales in a variety of cultures.

There’s nothing wrong with these as rough guidelines. The problem comes when people use them as paint-by-numbers templates. The result is a lot of scripts that look the same, sound the same, and feel the same. As a consultant and writing coach I sometimes read scripts and often I can tell, “Aha, it’s page 35, here comes the mentor.”

Yes, cookie-cutter scripts do get made, especially if they feature a lot of special effects and explosions. But if you are a new scriptwriter hoping to be discovered, your best strategy is to write something original, something unique. Examples include “Sixth Sense,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” and “Sideways.”

Your final product may or may not fit one of the main story patterns, but my point is that your story should be your starting point. The story should suggest the structure, not the other way around. I find so many newer writers immediately trying to fit their story into one of the patterns that they close themselves off to more interesting directions their story could take.

I suggest that you dare to write a really messy first draft. Allow it to be too long, too short, to have too many characters or not enough, to go off on tangents if it wants to. Allow your passion for the story and your understanding of the characters to guide you. Will they sometimes lead you astray? Yes, definitely! But often they will lead you to exciting, quirky, different stories infused with energy. During this phase use what I call the tools of creation: daydreaming, visualizations, explorations.

When you have done that, the time will come to be more aware of the conventions of scriptwriting. You will have to see how you can get the script to the proper length (for a feature, that would be from about 90 pages for a comedy up to 120 or 130 for a drama). You may have to cut certain scenes to make the story flow more smoothly, or to add some scenes for the sake of logic. You may have to “fire” certain characters because they actually don’t belong in this story (you can always re-hire them for another script). This is the time when it’s useful to see whether any of the elements of the hero’s journey can be helpful to you, and whether the three-act structure can help you get your story into balance.

What you can offer the world is your original vision. Be sure that the tools you use help you take advantage of that, rather than dulling it, and you will be writing scripts that stand out in a crowded ‘me-too’ marketplace.

Jurgen Wolff’s new book is Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing, available online and at bookshops. He offers writing tips on his Web site and his blog. He has written more than 100 episodes of TV, including “Family Ties,” “Benson,” and “Relic Hunter;” the mini-series, “Midnight Man,” starring Rob Lowe; and the feature film, “The Real Howard Spitz,” starring Kelsey Grammer.