Writing is just as much about what not do to as what to do. This may be more true with screenplays than with other types of writing, though some of these will apply no matter what sort of writing you do.

You can break these rules and still achieve success.

What I’m hoping to do is help people look for problems that I and other screenwriters have encountered already and pass along our limited wisdom.

So let’s get to them:

#1 Refusing to Workshop their Script

Screenplays, more than any other type of writing I can think of, has to be workshopped. A screenplay is our blueprint for a film and films only work when an audience wants to see it. A film that doesn’t draw an audience is a failure.

As a writer, you have to do everything you can to make sure your screenplay fires on all pistons and that audiences will want to pay good money to see it. You have to make sure the dialogue works, that what’s coming from the character’s mouth sounds right.

The best way to accomplish this is workshopping. Since I wrote my first screenplay in college, my work has been subject to the eyes, opinions and prejudices of others. Workshopping helps you shake off the blindness of tunnel vision.

Plus it’s helpful to have someone read your characters out loud, so you can hear the rhythm and cadence of the words. Listen for any accidental homonyms and stay clear of unplanned soliloquies. Either you can go to the trouble of hiring actors, printing up your scripts and listening to them or you can let your fellow writers assist you.

Most cities and towns have a collection of writers who get together on a regular basis. Larger cities have multiple groups, which can be particularly helpful in getting a deeper understanding of what people think of your story.

If you can’t find a workshop - then start one yourself! If you’re writing that probably means you know a few people who write. Grab them and set up a time for you guys to start sharing. Put an ad out on Craigslist or some other classified section. Once you start sharing your work, you’ll realize the hubris of thinking you could write a great screenplay without having an audience look at it.

#2 Overloaded Description

This is one of those things that takes some time to get right, because if you go too far in either direction, you create some major problems.

If your script is full of flowery language and prose, with every detail described as if Herman Melville had written it, then you’re going to bore the majority of your audience. And you’ll have a really hard time getting a producer to actually read through it before tossing into the trash.

Well, a producer’s script reader. They’ll toss it, because producers usually don’t touch scripts until someone far less qualified than them and probably less qualified than you has read through them. Their prejudices will sink or sail your ship.

I am good friends with a former script-reader for a large Hollywood producer. She told me once that she hates Charlie Kauffman and his films. That if she were to have gotten a Kauffman script, she’d have tossed it as pretentious crap.

When you’re unknown, it’s good to know your stuff is watertight.

But the other extreme can be even worse. I’ve read a number of scripts that are so sparse on scene description and action that I just get lost. Characters come in and out of the room and it’s not mentioned. Characters are using props that they’ve never had in their hands or commenting on something that’s not been mentioned.

This is tough on the reader, because suddenly we ask ourselves, “Wait...where did that hammer come from?” It also makes your script very hard to visualize when you have no idea what the setting or situation is.

You’ve got to give enough information to make things feel cinematic, but not cause massive snoring in your writing workshop.

How do you differentiate? Well, you have to tell us that your character is using a claw-hammer, but we don’t really need to know that it has an orange handle and a carbon-black head and what type of scratches it has?

Just the concept of a “worn-out claw hammer” is more than enough. The director and, ultimately, the production designer, will decide on these little details.

Give your audience what they need and no more. Learn to use a broader for brevity.

#3 Criticism: You’re Doing it Wrong!

So you get into one of these workshops. You read some of your script. They read some of yours. Now it’s time to give each other advice - so what’s right and what’s wrong? Is there such a thing?

Absolutely. If you read my script, see things that bother you, and don’t tell me - then your criticism is useless to me. I may not agree with you, and you may be wrong, but knowing your opinion does matter.

On the other side, there’s the sort of criticism where you’re telling someone what to do in their script - specifically. Even down to dialogue. Don’t do this.

When you see a problem, point it out. Let the author know. Don’t rewrite the whole thing. Don’t tell them to absolutely cut a scene. Don’t tell them to change specific elements of the plot.

You’re a writer - what happens if you change an event in your script? Everything else changes. Maybe it needs to, maybe it doesn’t - but the end result is you’ve got to put the puzzle back together in the right order.

Instead, tell the author you recognize a problem. Tell them if something feels redundant. Tell them that you’re bored during certain scenes. If they demand specifics, it’s up to you. Tell them or don’t. I usually err on the side of not telling them.

Working through the problems of a script is as helpful as getting things right. Good lessons learned for the next script and the one after that.

Now the most important piece of all criticism - listen to what people say!

I touched on it in tip #1, but make sure you take heed of what others say. No one will have all the answers to fix your script. How many movies do you know where everyone loves every part? You don’t.

But you know a lot of movies where most people love most of the parts. That’s what you’re striving for.

My rule of thumb: If multiple people state a problem, then you should investigate. One person’s complaints are entirely up to your discretion.

#4 Ignoring the Logline

You may think this comes after your movie is done - but it’s not.

A logline is a one-sentence (sometimes two) description of your film. Your movie broken down to its absolute base characters and plot. When someone asks you, “Hey, what’s your movie about?” you tell them your logline.

If you can’t, then something’s up with your story. Once you know the logline, you’ll know the spine of your story. A spine is exactly what it sounds like - the piece that holds it all together. Characters have spines, stories have spines, and even scenes have spines.

So you have this story about a kid that finds a monkey. A circus monkey. The boy, Manny, we’ll call him, doesn’t want his parents to know about the monkey. Now you have a whole ordeal on your hands, rife for comedy genius, heartfelt lessons and massive multi-demographical appeal.

What happens? If you just sit down and write it eventually you’ll hack something out. Something that resembles a cohesive story, but you’ll definitely be going back for multiple drafts. That’s tip #5, but we’ll get there.

“Manny, an outcast young boy, befriends an old circus monkey, but the grown-ups are out to capture them both!’

Can you visualize this movie? You may not want to pay to see it, but you can imagine it in your head. You can imagine many twists, turns and a few slips on banana peels. With your logline solid, you can then grow out from it.

Your logline is the trunk of your tree. Use it to guide the branches you write.

#5 Revise! Revise! Revise!

You’ve written your script. It’s 127 pages. Yeah, that’s great!

No, it’s not. It’s terrible. No producer wants to read a 127 page first-draft from a first-time screenwriter. Maybe you think you’re a prodigy. Hell, maybe you are, but I bet you have at least one typo in there. Probably about two-dozen.

Worse - your page count is ridiculous. No more than 110 pages.

110 pages equals out to roughly 90 minutes of screen time, when you factor in acting and directing specifics. Your 127 page opus is full of many, many things that do not need to be there. Things which need to be pressure washed away by the powerful thrust of your scrutinizing gaze.

Literally think about it as “trimming the fat.”

You have a chicken breast. Looks great. But all this white fat is flopping around. You have to cut it away. Toss it! It was there to serve a purpose, but now that purpose is done. Get to chopping!

You may only need one draft. Most likely you’ll need five. Maybe 10. Let everyone you know read it and look for typos - they are so hard to catch and many script-readers will toss your script if they find one-typo. Particularly right off the bat.

Wrapping it Up!

I’ve only touched on a few things here - and there’s so much more that you pick up along the way.

• Making sure your formatting is right
• Having dialogue on the first page, preferably toward the top.
• Understanding the look of white space in a script - using it to prod readers to move forward. Steer clear of overwhelming.
• And many more.

With these, though, you’re well on your way to avoiding some of the pitfalls I fell into. As I fall into some more, I’ll tell you what I discover!

Oh, one final note - try to make your dialogue realistic, but don’t get too hung up on it. When the director sits down with the actors, most of the dialogue is subject to change.

Actors need to make dialogue their own. Feel it and make sure it works with their interpretation of the character which may very well be different from yours. That’s fine, that’s what happens.

Once your script is being made, the director, actors and producer owns it. Eventually the editor and when it gets there, all bets are off! Everything is up for modification. If you have a favorite line of dialogue that’s super-witty, so pithy but it feels like a sore thumb in the scene or like you’re show-boating - cut it.

Kill your babies, that’s the rule of successfully refining your own work.

If you have any specific questions about screenwriting - formatting, story, characters, cheats, etc. - just ask. Just use the comments below!