Structure happens when every scene in your script is a step up the ladder to a cathartic final conflict.
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COACHING ACTORS
The odds that an actor needs you to tell them to toy with a napkin or scratch their forehead at a given moment in the story are vanishingly small. It’s also not very interesting to read. Little meaningless details don’t belong in the script at all. The exception is when a character’s tic or physical…
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YOUR FIRST TEN PAGES
It’s not interesting to read expositional scenes that dump lots of information about events leading up to this opening. That information doesn’t belong in the beginning. Just wade right into the story. Show who the person is. Show what the problem is. Develop those two things in an interesting way, use visuals, be entertaining about…
Read moreCLARITY PROBLEMS
Clarity problems happen when the central conflict gets buried under an avalanche of superfluous ideas. To enhance clarity in your script, give the reader the thread early. Weight your setup to favor your protagonist and the problem, give less time to secondary characters, set atmosphere with active images instead of conversations. Keep all of your…
Read moreSOMEONE POINTS OUT A PLOT HOLE YOU MISSED
AN ENDING THAT PAYS OFF
FIRST DRAFT
TENSION
Letting tension out in the script happens when conflicts are resolved too soon. It happens in scenes with two or three lines of wrap up dialogue that should be cut. You lose momentum when you let out tension. Keep the tension rising in your script by giving your protag more problems instead of solving them….
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