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.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
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.
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.
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