Sitcom Mission

How To Annoy A Script Reader - Part 3

Sunday 24th May 2015

Script Reader 3's issues...

Nathan Barley. Nathan Barley (Nicholas Burns). Credit: TalkbackThames

Formatting issues, spelling mistakes, sloppy things such as getting the character name wrong etc.

If you can't proofread or are dyslexic get someone else to do this for you.

Then there are many, many more such as derivative scripts, so many scripts you have read a million times before.

There are also the 'Save the Cat' freaks that religiously follow the book's guidelines; scripts that just don't have any internal logic; bland characters that are described as cool and amazing but then don't ever do or say anything that warrants this description; scripts that are trying to be clever and deep, written by people who are neither; scripts that try to be two genres but fail to do either well; scripts that aren't written with an audience in mind, that are so niche but yet with a big budget.

The most important thing for a writer is to have a fresh voice. Structure and plotting you can learn but original, interesting ideas are far and few between.

More: Tip 1, Tip 2, Tip 3, Tip 4, Tip 5, Tip 6, Tip 7, Tip 8, Tip 9, Tip 10, Tip 11, Tip 12, Tip 13, Tip 14, Tip 15, Tip 16, Tip 17


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