I’ve been reading a lot of screenplays lately… From indie filmmakers, all the way to a few A-List screenwriters and I’ve actually found some common mistakes that really slow down the reading enjoyment of these screenplays.
It’s true… You have to know how to write a good story and then be able to translate that story to screenplay format but make no mistake… Breaking into the business is largely a “numbers game” so why take chances by allowing mistakes in your screenplay when, with just a little commitment, you can easily take care of these BEFORE allowing ANYONE to read it?
Don’t you OWE it to yourself to insure that your screenplay is the very best it can be? If you’re an indie low or no budget filmmaker, don’t you owe it to everyone involved in your project and vision to make sure that your screenplay is the very best it can be?
Now that I’m playing the role of a producer, I’m reading at least 1 to 5 screenplays from professional screenwriters each week. That’s just me. I know professional readers that take 10 to 15 screenplays home to read over the weekend and that doesn’t include all the screenplays they read during the week.
Check this out… I’m talking about professionally written screenplays here… There might be a SMALL percentage of these from people with talent attempting to break in but by and large, the majority of these scripts are from professionals.
So…
If studios, readers, prodcos, agents, and producers are passing on all these PROFESSIONALLY written screenplays, don’t you think it’s important that your work at least LOOK professional too?
What I’m about to go over right now are the common mistakes EVERYONE seems to be making these days… These are the kinds of mistakes that make readers, producers, agents, et al shake their head, role their eyes, and most importantly, PASS on your screenplay.
Location descriptions…
Do your research! Don’t use an incorrect name for a location when, in less than 5 minutes you can find the correct terminology on the internet. If you’re describing a bowling alley, go to a bowling alley and ask the names of everything that you’re not sure of… If you’re describing an automobile factory, don’t be vague about the equipment and make us guess what you’re talking about…
Keep your descriptions brief yet visual so we can see in our minds exactly what you’re describing. Avoid excessive description for any location unless it is absolutely germane to the story. Just give us a taste. Try to use descriptions that not only describe the location but set the mood you’re trying to get us to feel.
If you absolutely must use the same location for a large part of your screenplay, try like hell to mix it up! Don’t use all exterior or interior locations. Switch back and forth. Don’t use all day or all night – switch back and forth. Don’t have your characters always sitting in the same places… Move them around. Make them play with stuff while the action takes place. Have them open a window, turn on a light, slam a door, look for something that’s lost, smell their clothes on the floor… LOL. Make something happen instead of showing us talking heads.
Characters…
Don’t take an entire paragraph to describe your character… Keep it brief and select the PERFECT words to describe their appearance AS WELL AS their overall attitude. Only describe clothing and hair if it’s important for us to know i.e., has something to do with the story. Stay away from the cliché descriptions I keep reading like, “tall and handsome” or “stunning and beautiful.” Mix it up and make it interesting… How about “deviously gorgeous” or “chiseled features?” Just like describing locations, give us a picture AND a mood. In fact, location and character descriptions are about the ONLY PLACE where it’s acceptable to tell us something we cannot see to give us an emotional feeling about the location or character.
Age and sex. I can’t tell you how many times screenwriters fail to include this OH SO BASIC information. On top of that, unless an action by a character is once again, germane to the story, try to be consistent with the actions of the characters after you’ve told us their age and sex. Of course it’s okay to have your character do something OUT of character… That’s a part of good storytelling but don’t bounce your character all over the place for no apparent reason or you’ll only succeed in confusing us. In other words, don’t have your 36 year old male character hanging out with 14 and 15 year olds at the local skate park unless it has something to do with the story. Make your character’s actions and dialogue consistent with their age and sex. It’s unbelievable for us to hear a 50 year old woman say something like, “What’s up Dude?” –Unless of course there’s a REASON for her to do that. Be consistent. Don’t assume that we know the age and sex of your characters because of their actions, dialogue, and names.
Dialogue…
Whew… This is a big one! First the basic rule… Good dialogue is used to move the story forward, reveal character, and provide backstory when necessary. Don’t have your characters tell us the story we never read about in your screenplay. Don’t have your characters draw conclusions about anything unless you’ve shown us the same information they are drawing their conclusions from. Don’t try to rewrite the English language i.e, don’t try to write out a southern drawl… That’s confusing. Stick “southern drawl” in a parenthetical. Which brings me to parentheticals… Don’t direct your characters. Don’t have your characters PREACH to us! Don’t use your characters to tell us what YOUR OPINIONS are. If you want to explore a particular theme in your story, come up with ways of spoon feeding it to us instead of having your characters preach. Making your characters preach to us feels more like the WRITER has an agenda than telling a story.
Avoid ON-THE-NOSE dialogue. If you don’t know what on-the-nose dialogue is, it’s when you have your characters say EXACTLY WHAT THEY MEAN. Most people rarely say exactly what they mean and remember… A movie should be no different. As you go throughout your day, take a few minutes to really listen to the people talking to you… Hell, listen to yourself! There is almost ALWAYS subtext involved in conversation. There’s almost always a much more real meaning under the surface… Just peel it back. Your dialogue needs to be exactly the same… Even more so! On-the-nose dialogue is okay when used sparingly but it’s mostly appropriate for children, officials (like a cop stopping someone for a ticket), and when the story calls for dialogue to be absolutely on-the-nose which is not very often. Let us read between the lines. Don’t have your characters explain every detail of whatever you’ve got them talking about. Give us some credit to be able to draw OUR OWN conclusions.
Unless you’re Kevin Smith or emulating his style of screenwriting, keep it as visual as possible. Make your characters actually DO SOMETHING we can see instead of having them tell us they did it. By the same token, don’t have your characters telegraph their next move… Just move them!
Don’t let your character banter unless it has something to do with the story… There’s also no need to have each character say the character’s name they are speaking to… Most people don’t do this so don’t have your characters do it. *NOTE: Clive tells me that they actually do this quite often in his neck of the woods so I stand corrected when it comes to the U.K.
Again, no action lines in a parenthetical… That’s what action lines are for. And then, only use a parenthetical when it might be somewhat unclear as to the character’s attitude or mood… Having said that, there’s almost always a way to reveal that through the character’s dialogue…
I’m reading a lot of scripts lately where characters talk to themselves throughout the story… Wow, I don’t talk to myself… I think thoughts… I type thoughts… But RARELY do I actually talk to myself… DO YOU? It’s simply not believable unless the character is a mental patient. It’s okay to occasionally have your characters say something to themselves… Normally, they might shout a cuss word or even remember something short that someone told them… But please… No discussions with themselves unless it is important to the story.
It’s true… You have to know how to write a good story and then be able to translate that story to screenplay format but make no mistake… Breaking into the business is largely a “numbers game” so why take chances by allowing mistakes in your screenplay when, with just a little commitment, you can easily take care of these BEFORE allowing ANYONE to read it?
Don’t you OWE it to yourself to insure that your screenplay is the very best it can be? If you’re an indie low or no budget filmmaker, don’t you owe it to everyone involved in your project and vision to make sure that your screenplay is the very best it can be?
Now that I’m playing the role of a producer, I’m reading at least 1 to 5 screenplays from professional screenwriters each week. That’s just me. I know professional readers that take 10 to 15 screenplays home to read over the weekend and that doesn’t include all the screenplays they read during the week.
Check this out… I’m talking about professionally written screenplays here… There might be a SMALL percentage of these from people with talent attempting to break in but by and large, the majority of these scripts are from professionals.
So…
If studios, readers, prodcos, agents, and producers are passing on all these PROFESSIONALLY written screenplays, don’t you think it’s important that your work at least LOOK professional too?
What I’m about to go over right now are the common mistakes EVERYONE seems to be making these days… These are the kinds of mistakes that make readers, producers, agents, et al shake their head, role their eyes, and most importantly, PASS on your screenplay.
Location descriptions…
Do your research! Don’t use an incorrect name for a location when, in less than 5 minutes you can find the correct terminology on the internet. If you’re describing a bowling alley, go to a bowling alley and ask the names of everything that you’re not sure of… If you’re describing an automobile factory, don’t be vague about the equipment and make us guess what you’re talking about…
Keep your descriptions brief yet visual so we can see in our minds exactly what you’re describing. Avoid excessive description for any location unless it is absolutely germane to the story. Just give us a taste. Try to use descriptions that not only describe the location but set the mood you’re trying to get us to feel.
If you absolutely must use the same location for a large part of your screenplay, try like hell to mix it up! Don’t use all exterior or interior locations. Switch back and forth. Don’t use all day or all night – switch back and forth. Don’t have your characters always sitting in the same places… Move them around. Make them play with stuff while the action takes place. Have them open a window, turn on a light, slam a door, look for something that’s lost, smell their clothes on the floor… LOL. Make something happen instead of showing us talking heads.
Characters…
Don’t take an entire paragraph to describe your character… Keep it brief and select the PERFECT words to describe their appearance AS WELL AS their overall attitude. Only describe clothing and hair if it’s important for us to know i.e., has something to do with the story. Stay away from the cliché descriptions I keep reading like, “tall and handsome” or “stunning and beautiful.” Mix it up and make it interesting… How about “deviously gorgeous” or “chiseled features?” Just like describing locations, give us a picture AND a mood. In fact, location and character descriptions are about the ONLY PLACE where it’s acceptable to tell us something we cannot see to give us an emotional feeling about the location or character.
Age and sex. I can’t tell you how many times screenwriters fail to include this OH SO BASIC information. On top of that, unless an action by a character is once again, germane to the story, try to be consistent with the actions of the characters after you’ve told us their age and sex. Of course it’s okay to have your character do something OUT of character… That’s a part of good storytelling but don’t bounce your character all over the place for no apparent reason or you’ll only succeed in confusing us. In other words, don’t have your 36 year old male character hanging out with 14 and 15 year olds at the local skate park unless it has something to do with the story. Make your character’s actions and dialogue consistent with their age and sex. It’s unbelievable for us to hear a 50 year old woman say something like, “What’s up Dude?” –Unless of course there’s a REASON for her to do that. Be consistent. Don’t assume that we know the age and sex of your characters because of their actions, dialogue, and names.
Dialogue…
Whew… This is a big one! First the basic rule… Good dialogue is used to move the story forward, reveal character, and provide backstory when necessary. Don’t have your characters tell us the story we never read about in your screenplay. Don’t have your characters draw conclusions about anything unless you’ve shown us the same information they are drawing their conclusions from. Don’t try to rewrite the English language i.e, don’t try to write out a southern drawl… That’s confusing. Stick “southern drawl” in a parenthetical. Which brings me to parentheticals… Don’t direct your characters. Don’t have your characters PREACH to us! Don’t use your characters to tell us what YOUR OPINIONS are. If you want to explore a particular theme in your story, come up with ways of spoon feeding it to us instead of having your characters preach. Making your characters preach to us feels more like the WRITER has an agenda than telling a story.
Avoid ON-THE-NOSE dialogue. If you don’t know what on-the-nose dialogue is, it’s when you have your characters say EXACTLY WHAT THEY MEAN. Most people rarely say exactly what they mean and remember… A movie should be no different. As you go throughout your day, take a few minutes to really listen to the people talking to you… Hell, listen to yourself! There is almost ALWAYS subtext involved in conversation. There’s almost always a much more real meaning under the surface… Just peel it back. Your dialogue needs to be exactly the same… Even more so! On-the-nose dialogue is okay when used sparingly but it’s mostly appropriate for children, officials (like a cop stopping someone for a ticket), and when the story calls for dialogue to be absolutely on-the-nose which is not very often. Let us read between the lines. Don’t have your characters explain every detail of whatever you’ve got them talking about. Give us some credit to be able to draw OUR OWN conclusions.
Unless you’re Kevin Smith or emulating his style of screenwriting, keep it as visual as possible. Make your characters actually DO SOMETHING we can see instead of having them tell us they did it. By the same token, don’t have your characters telegraph their next move… Just move them!
Don’t let your character banter unless it has something to do with the story… There’s also no need to have each character say the character’s name they are speaking to… Most people don’t do this so don’t have your characters do it. *NOTE: Clive tells me that they actually do this quite often in his neck of the woods so I stand corrected when it comes to the U.K.
Again, no action lines in a parenthetical… That’s what action lines are for. And then, only use a parenthetical when it might be somewhat unclear as to the character’s attitude or mood… Having said that, there’s almost always a way to reveal that through the character’s dialogue…
I’m reading a lot of scripts lately where characters talk to themselves throughout the story… Wow, I don’t talk to myself… I think thoughts… I type thoughts… But RARELY do I actually talk to myself… DO YOU? It’s simply not believable unless the character is a mental patient. It’s okay to occasionally have your characters say something to themselves… Normally, they might shout a cuss word or even remember something short that someone told them… But please… No discussions with themselves unless it is important to the story.
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