I stopped calling myself a writer some time ago. My self-imposed “title” is now Storyteller. After years of being a journalist, short fiction writer, screenwriter, film director, copywriter, and now a novelist, I learned one lesson about all these vocations: They’re all storytellers.

But it’s screenwriting that has provided for me the best guidance on effectively structuring a compelling, entertaining tale. It commences with a three-act structure―a beginning, middle, and an end―as its backbone and is then dressed with memorable characters, interesting subplots, and a very appropriate, satisfying ending.

What I enjoy most about scriptwriting is the bare-bones storytelling using sparse language: action, dialogue, action, dialogue. A script can be used as a detailed outline for a novel. It’s a skeleton of a story sans the longer-winded language of paragraphs, the concern with word count, and an arduous 300-plus page length. But a screenplay still possesses a killer story in its barest sense. There’s a magic to doing that which only truly talented screenwriters can perform.

So why did I turn to novel writing? There are two primary reasons:

First, Hollywood has been procuring IP properties with built-in audiences like novels, a trend that encourages scriptwriters to turn their work into novels as an alternative route to selling their stories. Some successful novel-to-movie adaptations include Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and The Martian by Andy Weir.

Secondly, novels offer a larger landscape on which to tell a story. Some stories I want to tell are simply too big for a 110-page script. Novels allow for more in-depth character development, a wider array of related subplots to intertwine throughout the storyline, and―most important to any author―the ability to have control over the writer’s voice and the final draft.

With screenwriting, however, once you sell your script to a studio, producer or director, you lose much control over it―especially the final cut. I heard an A-list screenwriter once say that, from a script he wrote and was produced, just one line of dialogue he penned made the final cut. The only upside was that he was paid and got “Written By” credit.

In traditional journalism, reporters are at the mercy of news editors and copy editors. As a film director, the budget, producers, focus groups, and studio executives will all impose their visions on your story―input that stems primarily from a marketing standpoint, not a creative one.

But while there are agents and editors involved in the publishing process for short fiction writers and novelists, the author’s main story and voice stay generally intact. I recently told someone that writing novels was the first time in my life where I was in complete control of the work. I no longer have to concern myself with pitching a story to my editor in order to write it as I did as a journalist. I don’t have to worry about hiring reliable actors and production personnel, scheduling shoots, and staying on budget to tell a story as I did as a filmmaker.

Yes, subject matter experts, agents, and beta readers are the supportive team assisting in the development of any novel. But the brunt of the work as a novelist is on my shoulders. I bear all the weight in conceiving the idea, researching the story, and approving the final edit.

Sink or swim, it’s on me because I’m the storyteller. But that’s also the beauty of it.