Part 79: Screenwriting "Rules"- Whether You like Them or Not!

As a screenwriting mentor and producer, I review several dozen original speculative screenplays a month. One thing I’ve found during this review process is the commonality of errors spanning the screenwriting experience spectrum: newbies and experienced writers alike make the same mistakes over and over again.

I call these "formatting errors".

Formatting is not exclusively about the margin settings. In screenwriting, we are talking about the proper way to write?slug lines, as just one example of formatting. Other repetitive errors include poor spelling, grammar, lack of punctuation, and overuse or misuse of a variety of acceptable screenwriting techniques.

If these errors are consistent throughout the first ten pages, no one of any authority will ever read beyond the first three pages, much less the first ten. If?YOU?want to be taken seriously as a spec screenwriter, here are ten areas to look for, change, and/or improve:

1. Scene Headings (Master Scene Headings, slug lines, or slugs):?Include camera location (INT, EXT, INT/EXT), scene location (BEDROOM, BUSY STREET, etc.) and time of day (DAY, NIGHT). Do NOT use any other TOD unless absolutely imperative in telling the story (if the killer only kills at midnight, and the killer is about to kill, then say “MIDNIGHT”)

2. Camera Directions (CUT TO, DISSOLVE, etc.):?Exclude all technical camera directions in your spec script unless IMPERATIVE to the IMPACT of the story. Limit yourself to “FADE IN:”, and “FADE OUT:”

3. Actor Directions (beats):?Do?NOT?include (beat) in dialogue. The actor is trained to act. Think of beats as dialogue speed bumps, and it slows the read considerably. Do NOT confuse this “beat” with a “Save the Cat” beat, or a beat sheet. You’re marching to the beat of a different drummer there.

4. “More white than black on the page”:?Target 150-180 words per page, and you’ll have a nice balance between blank space and ink. Anything over 200 words seems heavy; long paragraph blocks are deadly.?Keep scenes short; anything longer than three pages seems too long. Try the "1-2-3-4" method of writing; one typed line (max) for MSH; two typed lines (max) for scene/character descriptive text; three typed lines (max) of action text; four typed lines (max) of dialogue. These will be "averages" throughout the screenplay.

5. Screenwriting Technique/ Style:?Do not get carried away with parentheticals, capitalizations, flashbacks, montages, hyphens, ellipses and exclamation marks. If you need to use them, use them in moderation (sparingly).

6. Descriptions:?Provide enough scene description to allow the reader to imagine scene and exclude details that do not add to the story. Try to keep all descriptions to two lines or less.

7. Punctuation:?Rules of punctuation still apply in a screenplay. Learn them.

8.?Dialogue: Avoid expositional dialogue; having one character impart information to another character; information that they should already know; for the sole purpose of informing the audience (“You know Mom died when I was only eight, so…”). Keep dialogue to four lines or less whenever possible.

9.?Grammar: Avoid repeats of words, such as “walks”,” laughs”, “looks”, etc.?Write in the active tense?“He knocks”, as opposed the more passive “He is knocking” (-ing words).

10.?Spelling: Do not rely on spellchecking programs to do your spelling work for you.

When you follow THESE rules, you will find such a fast improvement in your screenplays, your head will spin. You'll be winning or placing very high in screenplay competitions, which will lead to requests by significant producers to read the screenplay. The more requests, the higher the likelihood of one of the producers to either option it or buy it from you. You've now shown others that you've taken the time to LEARN the craft and put that knowledge into the creation of your story.

Only good things will happen from here.

WRITER'S BIO:?Geno Scala spent 22-plus years in the Hollywood community and was the?Executive Director?for the?72nd Annual Academy Awards, as well as?The Soul Train Awards,?The Grammys,?The Blockbuster Video Awards Show?and?The Saturn Award Show.?Currently, he and his team are adapting several books into screenplays, including the fascinating autobiography?"Call Me Zena",?by?Sally Barnard?who, after a brief illness, developed high-level artistic skills overnight (Sally Barnard Art Gallery (passgallery.com).?

Concurrently, he is developing biopic projects of rock pioneer?Jimmie F. Rodgers,?Motown star?Tammi Terrell?and iconic folk?singer?Harry Chapin?- all while continuing to mentor hundreds of new writers, working with A-list clients, and ghostwriting adaptations for self-published authors. Geno has several screenplays produced and currently on Amazon Prime and Tubi TV:?"Assassin 33 A.D.",?"Black Easter"?and?"The Tombs".?

He is the?Executive Script Consultant?of a?major motion picture "Versus" (Liam Hemsworth; Samuel L. Jackson?attached), scheduled to begin filming in Australia, later this year.