So the other day, I was talking to someone outside the industry and she had strong opinions about screenwriting (doesn’t everybody?). According to her, it was all a matter of subjectivity. It came down to who was reading your script and if their sensibilities matched up with your own, that’s what determined whether the script sold or not. The Hollywood system was one big game of chance. You had to find the best match, not write the best script.
I held my tongue because we were in public and I didn’t want to pull a Christian Bale on Terminator Salvation.
But what frustrates me is how common this belief is, especially for people just getting into screenwriting. That it isn’t about craft, about working on all the little parts of screenwriting that make you a better screenwriter, but about typing up a Harry Potter knock-off and finding someone who likes Harry Potter.
This is why the majority of people who get into screenwriting give up after 2-3 years. They find it difficult to get their scripts in front of the “difference maker” people. And since they’ve trained themselves to think connecting with someone who has the same movie sensibilities as you do is the only criteria for making it, they throw in the typewriter when they don’t get the chance.
By the way, when they say 99% of all screenwriters fail, those 2-3 year guys are factored into that percentage. Which is hilarious when you think about it. Imagine if you tried to be a professional soccer player in 3 years. Or a neurosurgeon. Or a lawyer. Of COURSE those people never make it. They BARELY put in the effort. 3 years in screenwriting is NOTHING. That’s enough to learn structure, formatting, and the beginnings of character development. You’ll be lucky if you can write a cohesive 110 page story after three years, much less something that people fall in love with.
Now I’m not saying that subjectivity doesn’t play a role in your career. For example, if I was sent a biopic and a science-fiction script, I’d be more inclined to like the science-fiction script. But I can give you a hundred examples of weeks where I read both a biopic and a science-fiction script and I liked the biopic better. Why? BECAUSE THEY WERE BETTER WRITTEN. Because the writer knew how to tell a better story, develop better characters, keep my interest better.
If you want to be a successful screenwriter, STUDY THE SHIT out of screenwriting, write a lot of fucking screenplays, and read a lot of fucking screenplays. If you do those three things, you commit to the long haul, you have some hustle in you, and you have even a little bit of talent, you will succeed. Guaranteed. But for the rest of you who think this is all about sensibility? Here are 10 ways that myself and any Hollywood reader worth his salt can spot the NOT READYS and the READYS.
YOU ARE NOT READY IF…
You’re making basic formatting and protocol errors. I’ve yet to read a screenplay where a writer who doesn’t know how to properly introduce a character (capitalize name, give age, give description) or understand how a slugline works or any of the other basic formatting protocols, is ready for the professional stage.
You can’t stay focused. This is one of the easiest ways for readers to spot newbies. The tone is all over the place. The genre keeps changing. The story jumps all over the place. The best stories tend to be simple and focused.
You’re not exploring character flaws in at least one of your major characters. This is the classic wall between intermediate and advanced level screenwriters and one that many writers never cross because they don’t have any interest in exploring people. If you want to write a screenplay that Hollywood buys, you need to have a deep interest in people and what makes them tick.
Your scenes are just “there.” They don’t seek to entertain, to explore conflict, to highlight something interesting or fun about the characters involved. The scenes are just there to take up space. Each scene should be a tiny little movie. It should entertain the reader. See basically any Coen Brothers scene for reference. They mini-movie the shit out of their scenes.
You’re consistently unclear about basic things. The worst scripts to read are the ones that exist in a haze because tiny bits of information are consistently kept from you, leaving you unsure about the most basic information. Is Karen Dan’s mom? I think so because she was acting motherly a second ago, is 45 when he’s 23, and they live in the same house. Then three pages later, Karen and Dan are making out. I guess they’re not mother and son after all! Wow, that could’ve been so easily cleared up had the writer just TOLD ME THAT. Readers who don’t make basic pieces of information clear are a special kind of evil as they drive readers to the brink of insanity.
YOU ARE READY IF…
You’re consistently making surprising choices. The majority of writers write the same scenes, the same characters, and the same plot beats, because they’re all watching the same movies and are therefore being inspired by the same things. Either start watching movies and shows that nobody else watches, or push yourself beyond the obvious choice and come up with as many, “I’ve never seen this before” moments as you can. Challenge yourself. See how many fresh scenes you can add to your script!
Your script is the epitome of professionalism. You have zero grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors. Your formatting is perfect. So is your protocol. You can tell each sentence has been meticulously combed over to be as short, and yet as informative, as possible. The character descriptions are well-thought through, yet simple and clear. The best scripts I read are usually mistake-free or near-mistake-free. The same people who take pride in their presentation are the people who have worked hard on their craft.
Your choices are story-driven as opposed to gimmick-driven. – This took me longer to figure out, but I’ve discovered that writers who are gimmicky in their writing (write in a self-referential style or depend a lot on twists and reversals and breaking the fourth wall shit) do so because they don’t trust their ability to keep you entertained with basic sound storytelling. Have you ever watched a comedian who’s jumping around the stage like a lunatic, farting and falling and doing anything for the laugh? It’s funny but often in an empty way. Then you see guys like Jerry Seinfeld or Louis C.K. and they just stand there. And they’re so confident in their material, they know that’s all they need to do. Screenwriting is the same way. Just tell a good story. You don’t need a bunch of flash and pizazz. That’s typically an indication that you’re overcompensating for something.
You’re consistently using the Golden Triangle for your scene-writing. The Golden Triangle is conflict, suspense, and dramatic irony. If you’re using one of these three things in each scene, there’s a good chance that your scene is entertaining. Most newbies don’t know what these are or their different variations or the different ways in which you can use them. So the majority of their scenes lack spark.
No matter where we are in your script, your story is always building towards something. A good script always pushes toward its climax. And every ten pages, we should feel like the story is a little bigger than it was ten pages prior.
Getting good at screenwriting doesn’t happen overnight. You have to improve at it piece by piece and that takes time. So locate a weakness of yours (you don’t know how to add suspense, for example) and spend 1-3 months researching, studying, and writing suspenseful scenes. If you don’t know what you need work on, get some feedback. Send your script to friends, send it to fellow Scriptshadowers, send it to me. And ask us: “What do I need to work on?”
I remember this writer who’d send me these scripts and they had ZERO detail. Like if he were to describe a downtown area, he would write, “We’re down town. There’s an intersection and a few people around.” So you couldn’t envision being in any of his locations and it made his scripts feel empty. I told him that he needed to become more detail-oriented and start painting pictures of his world on the page. He worked hard on that and a year later, he sold a script for half-a-million dollars. This wasn’t long ago. But unless you know what’s wrong, you can’t fix it.
Just remember that your success is within your control. This is not a lottery. It is not a game of luck, despite frustrated people on the internet trying to convince you otherwise. If your scripts aren’t impressing people, it’s because you still have work to do. So get back in there and do the work!
