Cut "CUT"

We don't need to read "CUT TO:" When you start a new scene it's implied.

This one search & destroy will help your page count and your reader credibility.

A Novel Concept

This is your screenplay.
This is your book.
Can't tell the difference?
Then dodge my right hook.

Apologies. I needed the rhyme. The point stands: A book and a screenplay are different things. The key difference (other than the obvious ones) is in the descriptions.

ACTION LINES should look like this.

What action lines should not look like is this. Right here. You're looking at it. You're bored already aren't you? I am, and I'm writing it. Paragraphing, paragraphing away, too much text, killing trees. Why, yes, printer cartridges do grow on trees in my world, thanks for asking! Hang on, I think I've got a few other random points to make - and as long as it's all squished into one paragraph it only counts as one line. This'll save on my page count too! Isn't this swee-

They don't need to be one sentence but if I see a fully loaded graph I start to skim. If you use them, see what can be cut. If something can't be cut, perhaps it deserves its own line.

Save your poetic invocation of the Georgia wetlands on a late summer morning for the novel.

Driven to Tear

The "single tear" cliche is a way of letting me know the scene is tragic. At least, that's what you think.

For a reader (definition: one who does not like to be hit over the head with things any more than anyone else does), it sounds more like this:

"TRAGEDY! MY HEROINE IS TRAGICALLY PERFECT! HER WOE IS PERFECTLY TRAGIC! EVERYTHING IS JUST SO PERFECT AND ELOQUENT AND TERRIBLE! OH, THE HUMANITY!"

Don't go to shout. Lose the single tear. We hear you plenty well using your indoor voice.

Good for the Environment

The next time I read a v.o. of the phrase "That's me" I will beat the living smack out of a tree.

You wouldn't hurt a tree, would you?

This was played out by the time 'An American in Paris' came out and even they upped its originality by first showing someone else's face. Fifty odd years later it still needs something else to make it work.

This has been used in some good scripts, but it's also abused in a metric ton of bad ones. Tread carefully here and remember:

When in doubt cut it out.

Use It or Lose It

Apparently, the sleezier you are the nicer your car.

Is this happening in real life? Does some asshabidasher laugh at a little girl's spilt ice cream and the next day find Bimmer keys in his mailbox?

That would explain a lot about the scripts I'm reading. And life in gen.

But I doubt it.

This isn't a search & destroy tip. Just know that as soon as you have a nasty piece of work driving a nice piece of chrome I'll assume the rest of your script will be just as predictable. Remember the ol' theatre rule: Never put a cannon on stage you don't intend to fire.

If Ferris' bff is going to have a turning point when they can't get the miles back off the car, fine. If not, leave it for Top Gear.

Don't Play that Funky Music

♫ Hey mister, hey mister writer, you're not a DJ. Turn the music down! ♪

Times mentioning a specific song is allowed:

1. Karaoke scenes
2. Dichotomy (a happy song over a fight scene, etc...)

And even then you should use 'a song like...' This lets potential producers and directors know what's going on in the scene without locking them into an expensive song.

Even better for you, it lets them know you're a professional who will not crazily think the script must be your 'vision.' It's the producer and director's vision, it's just your script. (Even if you don't believe that, that's the company line. Learn it well.)

Writers who are delicate about their 'children' don't get called back. Writers who insist that the song on the radio must be The Jam's "Waterloo Sunset" may have good taste in tunes, but will also have a bad rep with their reader.

Yes, established writers break this rule. But they got to be established by proving they weren't fussy, helicopter-parents. So tuck it back in your pants.*

*and by 'it' I of course mean your iPod