The First Five Pages

The first few pages of your script are crucial. Because it is somewhere on these pages that your reader will decide that they are liking what they are reading – or not. If you don’t grab your reader in the first few pages, their interest wanes and opinions begin to form. This writer can’t really write. This script will not be good. I’m hungry. I have two other scripts to read today. Let’s just get this over with.

Can you imagine if that is the attitude with which your script is read??? It happens every day, guys.

In the first five pages of a script, I want to have at least one good laugh, one really scary, surprising or unexpected moment. I want to say WHOA – and put an exclamation mark by something that happened that is delightful, intriguing or totally compelling.

Readers want your script to be an interesting read – oh how they crave it in fact. An entertaining script makes us love our jobs. We want you to make our day; we love the thrill of discovering a great story. We love saying to our friends or partners – you wouldn’t believe the script I read today. We remember your scripts when they are good. We remember good lines and good characters.

So come out of that gate running hard, Wavers. Make sure the first few pages are packed with voice, style and originality. Make sure that you make the reader curious and want to know more. If you start off with a scene of your character’s ordinary life, you better punctuate that with something pretty cool --and fast. Sometimes writers feel like they need to write a few scenes before the story really gets going. Wrong and wronger. You have approximately three minutes to make a reader think wow, this is going to be kind of fun!

Because readers read scripts all day every day we are pretty smart. We don’t really need to see three pages of the neighborhood and its denizens saying good morning. Commit this to memory, Wavers: readers have read every script in the world twelve times. WE GET IT. I can’t tell you how often I write “I get it already” on the margins of scripts. We get it, the girl is cute, we get it the guys at the bar are drunk, we get it this is a nice person preparing for their day, we get it this family loves/hates each other. Don’t beat it to death. Make your point and move on.

Embed action within your set up. Sure, you need to establish the world, whether that be an office or the neighborhood or the Command Center of the space patrol – but make sure that within that set up, we are being introduced to the characters and ultimately, to the DNA of the story we are about to see.

The opening sequence of THE TRUMAN SHOW is a great example of an opening that piques our interest intensely so – the world is recognizable and yet so uber-normal that we know something is wrong here – what is it? Think about the opening sequence of JAWS – wow, that made us sit up, didn’t it?

The more experienced the writer, the more they know that those opening pages are like the Kentucky Derby – a pistol shot, those gates swing open and they’re OFF! If your story plods out onto the field and blinks in the light – well, that just ain’t promising.

Don’t be left in the dust, Rouge Wavers. In the first five pages, set the scene, introduce your main character, show off your voice and style, establish the world and make sure it’s all as high octane as is appropriate for the tone of your story.

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