Page Count 101

The first thing a reader does once your script is in his or her hands is pull out the brads while staring at the title contemplatively - THE CRAZY DUMPLING. Huh. Then we flip to the last page to check your page count. We do it for two reasons. To know what we are up against this morning and to get a sense of your skill set as a writer. The number of pages in a script tells me immediately whether or not your story ran away with you. If I see that you have 120 pages, I’m going to flip back to the title and if that doesn’t help, look at page one. I am looking for genre. If I see that I am reading a horror or comedy, my stomach drops. Because at 120 pages, there is a fundamental problem with your story. I don’t even have to read it to tell you that.

Fun Fact: A page of script is about one minute of movie time.

Debates around roaring bonfires rage long into the night about how long a script should be. A script should be only as long as it takes to tell the story and not a page longer. That’s pretty helpful, huh? Well, let’s look at the basic three-act structure which tells us that in general, we have between 25 and 30 pages in the first act, 50 and 60 pages in the second act and between 20 and 30 pages in the third act. Using the high and low numbers there, that means your script should be between 100 and 120 pages long.

It is ironic but true that at the same time that our society is collectively suffering from ADD as we thumb scroll through our Blackberries in line at the movie theater and drink our green tea energy beverages while we plan next weekend down to the nanosecond, movies have become l-o-n-g-e-r. Twenty years ago, a two hour movie was an epic. It was highly unusual. Maybe THE LAST EMPEROR or Bertolucci’s 1900 or LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Sitting in a theater for two hours was considered a subversive, brave deed and accomplishment.

Today two hour movies have almost become the norm. Add onto that the previews, and drinking that green tea energy beverage suddenly doesn’t seem so smart does it? But I digress. It is important, in my view, to note then ignore the fact that movies seem to have gotten longer. The attention span of executives and has in fact gotten shorter. They want the thumbnail of your script in about thirty seconds. They want to know what your story is about in about three pages. They want to get to the good part already. Readers – this is not a bad thing.

The upshot is that page count is largely dependent upon genre. In general, drama, fantasy and science fiction might tip toward the 120 page mark. Even in those genres I would recommend trying to keep it closer to 110 or 115. If you are writing a horror or comedy in particular – shoot for the magic 100 page mark. Horror and comedy (very hot genres to be writing these days by the way) are timing-dependent genres. Things are scarier and funnier when the surrounding narrative clips along at a pretty dependable pace. If you are writing a horror script and don’t understand that fundamental truth about the genre – then I know the story is in trouble. Because I should never see a 120 page horror.

No matter which genre you are writing, it can truly be helpful to set a limit right away. I will not write more than 112 pages. Thinking if of it as counting calories; you can have all the fun you want but when you hit the limit, your day is done. Setting a page count limit at the outset can impose a discipline which will ripple backward across the script, forcing your story to be as pithy as possible. The reader who can say pithy three times fast after having just eaten a saltine wins the Rouge Wave Pithy Prize by the way.

Again, when I look at the page and see 120 pages, my eyebrows shoot up. It’s an alarm bell. I look again at the genre – maybe this is a civil war drama? No. Romcom. Uh oh. The writer is waving red flag trouble immediately. 130 pages – the script is a 4 alarm fire. Now, more established writers might be able to get away with that high a page count but until you are an established working writer that we are all going to read about in Written By? Please don’t write a 130 page script.

I have heard writers say – well, I just can’t tell my story in under X-way-too-many-pages. Yes. You. Can. Who is the boss here? You or the story? That is an excuse that drives me nuts. Challenge yourself. Look at your draft and lose ten pages. Just lose them. I promise you that every time, without exception, when I have seen writers mercilessly shorten their script, the story has improved. The shorter the script the more potent the pages become.

You are the chaperone of your story. Like a child, stories need discipline to be their best selves. Rule number one. Stay in the yard – 100 to 110 pages.

I apologize for the many and varied metaphors but it reminds me of the old game show Name that Tune – I can tell this story in 100 pages, Bob! Go for it. Shoot for the low end page count and your story – and executive/reader will thank you for it. You will not be making a mistake.

Can you write too few pages? Yes. A script that comes across a desk with less than 100 pages waves another red flag…This script is anemic; the writer didn’t have a whole, three act story to tell and what crawled across the finish line just can’t be that good.

As with anything, immediately writers say yes but X famous comedy was 95 pages and it made X million dollars. Fine. That particular story was served well by 95 pages. Yes and X moving drama was a 142 page script and it won the Academy Award. So you’re full of baloney, Rouge Wave! I can write as many or as few pages as I want!

To look for exceptions is great sport because you will always find them, hidden between the trees in the forest. But as a new writer, you will set yourself up to miss the forest for the trees. Imposing page limits is a good way to hew to genre expectations and to ask your story to please tell itself in the most efficient way possible. We are not writing Proust here, people. We don’t have the luxury.

When an executive looks at your script, you have about five minutes flat to make a great impression. Maybe less. As we have explored and will continue to explore in this blog, there are a number of indicators that the writer knows his or her craft and that we are in good hands. Page count is one of them. It’s the first thing we notice; it can be the nail in the coffin or the punctuation mark at the end of a great script.

Know your genre, set a page limit and stick to it. Your story will thank you.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.