YOU DON’T START AT ZERO

Script readers go through stacks of scripts and they’re expecting your script to be terrible.  You don’t start at zero.  You start with a -10 on the Script-O-Meter.  You have to prove quickly that you can write.  You have to work your way off the -10 start to a zero.  “Pretty good but… meh.”   Then make your way to the' consider' and finally 'recommend' heights.   That’s 1-2% of scripts that are executed at that level.

How long before a reader decides if they’ve got a good script?  Does that take ten pages?   Sadly, no.  Some readers say they know a page or two in if the script is pro level.  Beyond basic script format, newer writers struggle to handle exposition.  Establishing who the characters are quickly is difficult.   William Goldman suggests putting the characters in conflict and used the exposition as ammunition.  Instead of reciting facts the characters already know about each other the information is relayed as the characters argue.   

When are you starting your story?   I’ve seen major feature films that begin with backstory.  Backstory is what happens before the actual story starts.  Some warning flags are scripts that have large time jumps in the first ten to twenty pages.   

Why are we starting the story on this day?   Why this day?  “Well, we needed to know that about her childhood because…”. Work it into the story at the moment we need to see it.  For example, look at the flashback to Paris in Casablanca.  The film doesn’t open with it.  Rather, it’s used at that time in the story where the audience’s curiosity is at its peak and is needed to advance the narrative.

An overused method to hook readers/viewers early is the major action event followed by “48 hours earlier” chyron and then the story starts.   This was used by J.J. Abrams often in his projects and even the great series Breaking Bad opened with the device.  Unfortunately, it’s been overused to the point of cliché’.  It’s also a likely sign that rather having a clearly compelling opening, the writer has to create a hook from another point of the script.  Because of overuse, I’d avoid it but ... your script and your call.

Avoiding “sit and talk” scenes can also be challenging.   Our minds process visual information quickly and two characters sitting and talking is dull to see.  Aaron Sorkin uses “walk and talk” scenes, used extensively in The West Wing.  Characters are moving, interacting with others, and it gives scenes a sense of momentum.   Game of Thrones employed “sexposition” where characters relay important story information during and after sex scenes.   Story momentum maintained.  

Look through the first ten pages of your script.  It’s difficult asking anyone to take the time to read anything.   People just don’t have the time or attention span.  Ask people to read only your first ten.  This is easier for them to do and if they aren’t prompted to read more go back and rewrite.  Were they hooked to continue reading or not?   If not, chances are the production company reader will have tuned out as well.

Robert McKee says that a writer is at top form perhaps ten percent of the time.  More to the point, Ernest Hemingway said, “The first draft of anything is shit.”  Hemingway wrote forty- seven endings to A Farewell to Arms.  Writing is rewriting.  It may take ten, twenty, or thirty drafts to get your script in shape.  Pros go the distance.   Keep at it!