20 Things I Know For Sure: Do's and Don'ts in Your Spec Script

1. Don’t give your script a mysterious or esoteric title. It won’t be understood and this will annoy the reader and put them off the script before they even get started.

2. Don’t let your script go over 110 pages – max – unless this is an epic.

3. Don’t write an epic spec until you are experienced enough to do so.

4. Don’t forget to proofread; errors and clumsy language usage mark you as an amateur immediately.

5. Don’t write dense action lines.

6. Don’t over or under-describe your characters when we first meet them.

7. Don’t write dialogue that doesn’t sound natural. Try reading the line aloud yourself: how does it sound?

8. Don’t be sloppy; errors in logic, slug lines, locations etc. make you look lazy, untalented or both.

9. Don’t complicate your story overly much; you don’t want the reader to have to flip back and forth between pages and use their highlighter in order to grasp the trajectory.

10. Don’t bore readers. Treat them as if they have ADD. Your script is the center of the world to you; to a reader it’s one of many scripts they’ve read this week so far. Blow their ennui out of the water on page one.

Some writers still cling to the urban myth that a good story can trump bad writing. This, in my experience, is untrue. The ability to conceptualize a good idea cannot exist separately from the ability to execute it. In fact, over hundreds and hundreds of scripts, we readers notice patterns that emerge. Most scripts fall into only a very few categories:

Bad story: bad writing
Soft story: soft writing
Good story: mediocre writing
Great story: great writing

Don’t be discouraged; know that as part of the natural evolution of your writing, you are more or less destined to start at the bad story: bad writing end of the spectrum and move your way up slowly until you have a great story beautifully written.

Here is a list of Do’s to help you get there:

1. Do title the script in such a way that it both piques interest and tips the reader off to the nature of the script.

2. Do keep the script down to a nice, tidy 100-ish pages long. Many readers and execs flip to the last page first so we know what we’re up against. The number of pages gives us a sense of your discipline and skill set as a writer; 120 pages of romcom telegraphs to the reader immediately that this script is not working on a fundamental level.

3. Do make sure the script is clean in presentation and absent of spelling errors, typos or poor language usage. Proofread it eighty times.

4. Do write your action lines so that they read easily and are entertaining in and of themselves.

5. Do write characters that are unique and yet instantly recognizable; they should tell volumes about themselves in even their small details. Inventive economy. Make it your mantra.

6. Do write dialogue that feels natural, is never superfluous and moves the story along quickly.

7. Do check and double check that your writing is spare and simple: everything should make perfect sense as the reader moves along so that they never flip back or get bored and check emails; once you’ve lost the reader’s interest it’s an uphill battle to get it back.

8. Do pay a great deal of attention to keeping the story moving; nail your three act structure; readers won’t notice it consciously, but it will make the read faster and more interesting.

9. Do pay off the ending; the reader has invested most of their morning or afternoon in your script, make the ending count. Surprise us!

10. Do us one favor: write a story so entertaining that if only for that hour, we forget we are readers and simply enjoy the experience.

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