Must Have Elements in Script Notes to Actually Improve Your Story

Every screenwriter and script needs a story editor. An expert whose notes shine a beacon on the path of how to lift a story to the next level. The most productive script notes discuss these three elements:

Positives, Problems, Solutions.

And just before those three essentials, this: When receiving and giving notes I find it helpful to have at their head a two-three sentence summary of the major findings. Positives then negatives. Now that I have the big picture of the script review findings the notes that follow will make more sense and be clear about which ideas need to be acted on most.

Let’s look briefly at the three basic components pro script notes should give you:

The Positives

Every writer needs and earns praise. It’s a monumental task to create a story. Kudos to you for completing a draft. I like to tell my clients that a screenplay has 10,000 moving parts. And a screenwriter needs to get every one right. Every story does something right. Its creator needs to be told this. That’s not just an act of respect and simple justice. Many years ago, one of my good script editors taught me this, “A writer needs to know what he did well. So, he won’t change it!”

The Problems

Every script draft has problems, mistakes, and omissions, especially if it’s an early draft or by a new writer. But a list of hundreds of problems -- big, medium, and small – all mashed together hinders understanding the key problems that need to be fixed first. A writer must be clear on what are the BIG problems in his story. That is, the deepest and most consequential ones. After learning and fixing these, he can better understand and deal with the smaller problems. A writer not knowing what the main problems are in his story will tend to fix the smaller ones and the big ones will not be properly addressed. Dooming that script.

The Solutions

This is where the pen really hits the paper.

Once a skilled writer is told the ideas of the big problems in his story, his mind will start working on solutions. Ideas! But usually not every solution. All writers can get stuck in fixing story problems, especially if they are on a deadline. Writers can be greatly helped by an editor giving practical, on-the-page solutions. If right, these solutions are good answers that improve the script. If wrong, they are often prompts for the writer to see more exactly what the problem is and thus for him to find a better way to solve it.

Often, it’s not something wrong in a story that needs work. It’s the big omissions. The ideas, conflicts, layers, implications that the writer has missed. And that’s the gold a writer/script consultant can give you. Ideas that you can use to create the appropriate concretes on the page.

What a writer, producer, or director most wants from a script consultant is solutions on the page. A skilled consultant will give them killer notes re the deepest problems and show them HOW TO fix them. That is why top-level screen consultants earn those big bucks. Answers!

Actionable Creative Takeaway

Dear writer, producer, director do your homework.

Find a script consultant who gives you these three basics of professional and productive script notes. That tell you what works, what the big problems or omissions are, and (at the very least) leads of how to fix the big issues.

Now I will be blunt:

How many solutions you will get from a consultant depends on how much you pay them. (And how good a “writer” they are.) Don’t expect to pay a pittance and receive a pile of solutions. You won’t and shouldn’t. You get what you pay for. Cheap notes (esp. contest or reader/coverage reports) will often only state the obvious problems and few if any actionable solutions.

Look for a script consultant who will give you what you need most:

Ideas that unlock the weaknesses of your story and ideas of how to fix these so you can write a stronger more saleable script.

Yes, it costs more. In the short term. But it also opens the door for you to create a lot more and better.

Also note that a single good edit of your script doesn’t mean all its problems will be fixed. Scripts are edited in layers -- big problems are solved but then others are more visible and now need to be dealt with. It can take more than several edits to get your story to the pro and marketable level.

But an expert script consultant can be the difference between story success and story demise.

If he has the Ideas!

If you want a free 15-minute story consult to learn more about how I would assess your script to lift it to a pro and marketable level reply with HOW.

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