What if I told you there is a magic pill you can take that is guaranteed to improve your screenwriting? There is, and it's actually a lot more enjoyable than taking a pill, unless you're really into pill popping.

It’s called reading other people’s screenplays. Professional or amateur. I promise if you read enough of them, your own screenplays will magically start getting better. How does it work and where do you find them? Good questions.

One of the first steps I took when I started taking my screenwriting ambitions seriously was to join a writers group. Each month we read a member’s screenplay and gave extensive feedback. When you’re starting out, reading another amateur writer’s work is the easiest way to see the mistakes that you are making. We all start out making the same mistakes. Too much dialogue. Telling, not showing. When you get bored reading someone else’s overly detailed scene description, you’ll understand how readers feel about your overly detailed scene descriptions, and you won’t want to put them through that anymore. It’s a lesson that’s more valuable than the actual notes you’ll get from the group on your own scripts.

If you can’t find a writers group in your area, why not create one? Use social networking web sites like Facebook or, say, the FiveSprockets forums to find other beginning screenwriters interested in peer reviews. There are also existing online peer review sites like Screenwriters Utopia’s Script/Swap.

Of course, it will help to read good scripts, too. Fortunately, the internet is crawling with screenplays for almost all of your favorite produced movies. Almost all formatting questions beginners ask can be answered by looking at professional screenplays. Wondering how to format a scene where characters are texting each other? Download Up In The Air and turn to page 49 to see how Jason Reitman did it.

Seeing a movie on the screen is a lot different from seeing it on the page. Find the screenplays for some of your favorite movies -- preferably recent ones, because frankly, seeing how Billy Wilder wrote a classic in 1950 will not help you sell a screenplay in the 21st century; and pick a movie you own on DVD and have watched more than a few times. Try writing a scene as if the finished scene were a scene from a movie you're writing that's still only in your head. How would you translate that vision on paper? How does that compare with the way the writer wrote it? Study that screenplay. What’s the page count? How long are the scenes? What’s the largest block of dialogue? Are the scene descriptions bogged down in details about set decoration or blocking, or do they help you flow effortlessly through the script?

Now try reading some screenplays for films you haven’t seen. Try it with the next movie in your Netflix queue that you can find the screenplay for. Read it before you watch it. How does the finished film match up with how you envisioned the scenes? Did the actors interpret lines differently than you thought they would? Notice any scenes missing? Try to figure out why before listening to the filmmaker’s commentary.

There are a limited number of screenplays published commercially, but there are literally thousands you can download for free at sites like Drew’s Script-O-Rama and The Daily Script. Just be careful not to waste your time with fan-generated transcripts, which will have as much value to you as a “novelization” of an original script.

Like a magic pill, the tips I’m offering here won’t help unless you actually swallow them. I, myself, am guilty of spending more time downloading a library of scripts than actually reading them. I’ve recently taken steps to correct that by joining a group similar to my first writers group. The twist is, instead of reading each other’s scripts, we read and analyze scripts of current theatrical releases. So far, we’ve covered Up In The Air, The Lovely Bones, and Youth In Revolt. And we really tear these scripts apart.

SECRET BONUS TIP: This time of year, most of the studios have special sections on their web sites where you can download the scripts for their Oscar contenders. These are intended for Academy members, in hopes of securing Best Screenplay nominations next Tuesday morning, but the sites are not restricted, so anyone can download them.

Sony Pictures Classics (An Education, Moon, Sugar, Broken Embraces, The Last Station, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The White Ribbon, The Damned United): http://www.sonyclassics.com/awards-information/

Focus Features (A Serious Man, Coraline, 9, Sin Nombre): http://awards.filminfocus.com/

Universal Pictures (Public Enemies, It’s Complicated, Funny People): http://www.universalpicturesawards.com/

Warner Bros. (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Informant!, Where The Wild Things Are, The Blind Side, Invictus, Sherlock Holmes): http://warnerbros2009.warnerbros.com/

Overture Films (The Men Who Stare At Goats, Sunshine Cleaning): http://www.overturefilms.net/awards/

The Weinstein Company (Inglourious Basterds, Nine, The Road, A Single Man): http://twcawards.com/

Lions Gate (Precious): http://www.lionsgateawards.com/

20th Century Fox (Avatar): http://www.foxscreenings.com/

Fox Searchlight ((500) Days of Summer, Crazy Heart, Fantastic Mr. Fox): http://www.foxsearchlight.com/awards/

Dan Margules is a screenwriter and co-founder of San Diego Filmmakers. His award-winning short film, Begleiter, is available in a Special Edition from Amazon.com or happy-the-dog.com. He recently read the screenplay for Garry Marshall’s Valentine’s Day.