Is Your Script Being Sent To Trash?
If you suspect your spec screenplay is being sent to trash, you’re not alone. I started script reading so long ago, most of the submissions I received were ON PAPER. No, I wasn’t born in prehistoric times with dinosaurs running all over the place … it was just twenty years ago. (Cheeky).
But these days, most spec screenplays are PDFs and attached to emails, or sent via portals like Submittable. However, this does mean they’re easier than ever to overlook, or get sent to trash. All overworked readers have to do is highlight your file and move it into their little virtual bin. Sorted!
So if you want to avoid YOUR spec screenplay getting sent to trash like this, then read on … Make sure your script does not fall afoul of one or more of these hideous script clangers. Ready? Let’s go …
1) Cloudy Concepts
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again … I can read beautiful writing whenever I like in the spec pile. But great concepts? Nope!
Hell, it’s tough even to find CLEAR concepts in the spec pile. Too many are ‘cloudy’ in that I can’t even work out what they’re really supposed to be about. Supersadface. MORE: #1 Concept Mistake Writers Make (Plus What To About It)
2) No Hook
As its name suggests, the hook is **that thing** that makes people want to read your script … what HOOKS them?? What’s new about your story? What’s ‘the same … but different’?
If you’ve read my 2023 updated version of my Thriller Screenplays book, you will know how important the hook is to that genre. But that doesn’t mean writers of OTHER genres don’t need one. Every story in every genre needs a hook.
And by the way … YES, your logline needs to contain that hook too! The last thing we want is a pitch that sounds like a rehash of what we’ve seen before. We also don’t want something that sounds completely out of the left field either.
Yes, this is why writing loglines is so hard. Deal with it! Here’s a FREE logline cheat sheet PDF download for you. (Pay particular attention to the questions on it. That’s the special sauce).
3) No Opening Image
First up: as ever, many scripts don’t have any opening image, or visual writing generally. This is such a super-clanger because – guess what! – screenwriting is a visual medium! Durr.
(Not sure what I mean an opening image? CHECK THIS B2W CASE STUDY OUT).
4) Making Us Wait
Another classic problem that’s rearing its ugly head at the moment … Making us ‘wait’ for the story to start! UGH.
Many scripts I’m reading ‘smell of set up’. By this, I mean that it feels like the writer is painting a picture of the storyworld and everything in it … then the writer begins the story. No, thank you!
5) Boring Beginnings
Intriguingly, a lot of scripts I’m seeing are eschewing set up altogether and attempting to go for a trope called ‘In Medias Res’.
This means ‘in the middle of things’. Think Memento here, where we see the blood, the photos etc all rewinding until Teddy gets shot in the face.
Unfortunately, writers attempting this often don’t pick a shocking or intriguing moment like that. Instead they will start ‘in the middle of things’ with people sitting around, eating, cooking, talking or walking somewhere. Yowser. NOT compelling! MORE: Plotting 101: Top 10 Tips For Crafting Compelling Stories
6) Don’t-Care Characters
Characterisation seems to be taking a big hit in the spec pile at the moment. I’m finding it increasingly difficult to discern the role functions of characters in particular. Who is the protagonist? The antagonist? What’s the purpose of the secondary characters?
Character motivation can be super-blurry too, which is a real shame. WHY are they doing various things/ reacting various ways? It’s not enough to cross your fingers on this stuff.
7) Plotting Problems
Plotting is possibly the biggest issue of the moment in the spec pile. Lots of scripts are all over the place, with cause & effect totally out of the window. Read more about this sense of cause and effect, HERE.
Even a non-linear script has to make sense somehow. It has to follow its internal logic. Many of the scripts I’m reading are just disjointed and confusing. If you want to write a non-linear story, click HERE.
8) Offensive Comedy
Controversial comedy seems to be making a come-back in the spec screenplay world. I have no issue with that. Really!
I am a big fan of what I call ‘the cringe laugh’. This is when characters do or say something unbelievably offensive or inappropriate, yet you laugh because otherwise you’d cry. This is because the ‘cringe laugh’ relies on some kind of horrible truth, often as a result of systemic injustice or similar.
Sadly, writers will often ignore the truth right now and go for cheap laughs in their spec scripts. This means the writers focus waaaaaaay too much on the controversial element. As a result, it’s JUST offensive and usually a yawnfest.
9) Genre No-No
As ever – and this is a golden oldie – writers just don’t know enough about genre. They think they can write a particular genre through the power of intuition alone. Eesh! Obviously, this can’t work. Their stories don’t hit any or too few of the genre markers, ie. their thriller is NOT a thriller.
Once more for those at the back … Genre is NOT a retrospective ‘sorting hat’! Instead, genre INFORMS your story through carefully chosen markers such as tropes and conventions. Learn what they are, pronto and stop guessing and/or crossing your fingers on this stuff!!!
10) Diabolical Dialogue
Lastly, dialogue chains. OH, THE DIALOGUE CHAINS! In too many spec screenplays, characters are talking for 3, 4, 5+ pages about random stuff.
Yet when was the last time you saw a movie or TV show in which characters **just** stand around talking for:
- 5 minutes plus?
- About stuff that doesn’t impact the story?
Writers are also shying away from the BIG STUFF in dialogue. Naturalistic dialogue has been back for a good while now – thank God, I find stylised dialogue excruciating – but characters frequently talk about unrelentingly boring, everyday crap like going to the store. SNOOZE!
Basically, screenwriters have finally caught on that impactful dialogue doesn’t have to mean characters constantly arguing … but writers have swung back too far the other way, so dialogue is too banal & not impactful. MORE: No, Your Female Characters Don’t Just Need More Dialogue. Here’s Why
So Don’t Get Sent To Trash!
If you don’t want to get sent to trash, then you need to pay attention to this list. To recap …
- Make sure your concept is clear
- Don’t forget your story’s hook
- Write visually
- Research the ‘in medias res’ trope
- Introduce characters & story TOGETHER
- Character role function & motivation are super-important
- Work on your plotting (most writers don’t do enough work on this!)
- Make comedy FUNNY, not offensive
- Do deep research into genre and what’s gone before
- Avoid those pesky random dialogue chains
Oh and as a last tip …
You can use ALL of the above in your novels too! Yes REALLY!
I have, both in my novels published under my real name, and my books as Lizzie Fry.
