All screenplays are stories, but not all stories are screenplays.
A lot of us have beautiful stories to tell that'll fit perfectly into a movie if done right.
If you have a story to tell, and you want it in form of a movie or you want to write it in form of a movie, you need to know the difference between story telling and script writing or screen plays.
Most people or aspiring writers usually confuse the difference between story telling and screen writing or screen play.
Something worth telling might have happened to you and you want to turn into and the story, it's is usually a good idea but there's a lot of things that need to be done in converting your story to a script.
You need to know what beats are and other things but now I'll just be talking on the difference between a script and a story.
What is a script or screen play?
A script is a written text generally created for film, play, TV series etc. A script provides a very elaborated explanation of the incidents and character, and let's not forget that screen plays are meant for TV so it is more visual putting a lot into description.
What is a story?
A story is a verbal representation of an even and it could be written too. A story is more verbal not usually for TV directly, but can be used to spark a screenplay.
Let's take an example.
In a story, we just say Luigi is a highly respected man in the city.
In screenplay, we write luigi is walking to his home in the evening. People sitting outside their homes are standing up and putting their self in order to say good evening. Children stop playing football to make sure he passes without any interference and greet him as he passes by.
Noticed the difference? In story we say luigi is a respected man to the audience directly. Whereas in screenplay, we show Luigi being respected, and also show the different things going on around him (more descriptive to show the feel of that particular scene)
A Story and screenplay convey the same message differently. One uses verbal medium and the other uses visual medium as said earlier.
A screen play or script consists of:
Slug Line: specifies whether the scene is set inside (interior/INT.) or outside (exterior/EXT.), the specific location, and the time of day.
Stage Directions: brief descriptions of the action occurring within that scene.
Dialog: what the characters say during those scene, often including very brief directions about how to say that dialogue or to whom the dialogue is spoken.
All these shows how much more descriptive a screen play is.
Note: for a screenplay to exist, A story needs to be told. Therefore a story inspires screenplay
Hope you understand the difference now and probably on the first step to write your own movie.