Beg to Differ

The Wave-inatrix's script consulting business has grown such that there are now other readers available to read scripts in the two and three reader packages. Whether or not the Wave-inatrix is one of those readers, I do of course review all the sets of notes, ensuring the notes meet my standards. The whole point of getting your script read by two or three readers at once is that you will see variances of opinion.

Recently, my two readers (wildly qualified and experienced, both) turned in notes on the same script and I noticed something fascinating. While their story notes were almost identical (there were a lot of problems) they had some nitpicky notes that were almost completely opposite. The writer is one who just so happens to have a ton of voice and personality on the page - something I absolutely adore. But one reader really took him to task for one particular action line stylism he has while the other made no comment but picked up on another stylism and took him to task for that. And interestingly, though I was not the third reader on the material - I have read his work before and would not have been bothered by either example.

So I went back and reviewed the notes again and found, upon closer examination, that the story notes from both readers reflected a narrative that was not working in a rather profoundly unsettling way. And they both felt character work was way off for the main character. AHA - so the reason they lasered in on a couple action line idiosyncrasies was that they were irritated that the script was not working on a larger level. And when readers get cranky about things like that - they nitpick.

I have had the same experience myself - if a script has a lot of typos and it's not working as a whole, I will definitely ride those misspells and malapropisms. If the script is pretty great on the whole, my eyes glide over small errors because I don't care - I'm caught up in the story.

So the moral is manyfold: yes readers can and might nitpick over small errors and idiosyncrasies and yes that is totally subjective. So, particularly if this is your first through fourth script or so - take it easy on stylizing or otherwise popping a lot of wheelies on the pages - try to lay down a great, solid story as your number one top priority. In fact, that is always, aways the first priority but the Wave-inatrix finds that the more experience a writer has getting the story right, then the writer can relax and add that layer of voice and style. But it's a careful balance at first.

Happy is the reader reviewing pages telling a great story in a great way, but cranky is the reader reviewing pages that aren't working, made more plain by stylistic choices that only highlight what isn't working. The impression a reader is left with is that the writer was a lazy pretender, eager to show off an undisciplined voice but not yet skilled enough to tell an original story and execute it well.

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