#screenreading

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NOTES FROM SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T GET IT AT ALL

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RIPPING OFF STUFF YOU THINK NO ONE ELSE EVER READ

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TNR

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METICULOUSLY DESCRIBED SCENES OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE

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Notes From a Screenreader: '20 Feet From Stardom'

Photo via Go Into the Story.

If you have not seen 20 Feet from Stardom, put it at the top of your to-do list. It won an Oscar, and it is the non plus ultra of setting your inner star loose on the world.

A voice is a voice, whether it is raised in song or committed to paper.

Be brave. Bulletproof your ego. It’s your engine. Persevere.

Be loud. Shout the house down with your story. Don’t miss a single opportunity to grab the reader and shake them like a snow globe.

Be unique. No points for blending in. Fresh characters, fresh conflicts, fresh resolutions.

Be entertaining. It’s a show. Flirt. Fan dance. Set up and reveal. No matter your genre, story, or tone, make it a thrill.

Be selfish. Give your best to your writing.

— ANNIE LABARBA 

Annie is a screenwriter, story consultant, and reader for major screenplay competitions.

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Notes from a Screenreader: Old News

Photo via Go Into the Story.

How long ago did you write your script? Does it show?

It is impossible to stay convincingly up to the minute with technology and pop culture in a script, but it is possible to blow the dust off by doing a careful read for obsolescence.

There's an app for that. All of that. Bring your characters into today by rewriting pre-smartphone plot points and conventions like alarm clocks and video stores and getting film developed.

Culture shock. The mainstream keeps getting wider, and that is a good thing. Many spec scripts feel stuck in the past because they fail to acknowledge radical recent changes in American culture. Rewrite for diversity and inclusiveness and shifting ideas about privilege and personal identity.

Don't write what you know. Not in the way that you know it. Tell your story in a way that it has not been told before rather than making a copy of a story that you loved five or ten or fifteen years ago.

— ANNIE LABARBA 

Annie is a screenwriter, story consultant, and reader for major screenplay competitions.

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Notes From a Screenreader: The Likability Trap

Photo via Go Into the Story.

Protagonists need a bigger than life personality. Most spec scripts have protagonists without one. The average protagonist is unobjectionable. They color inside the lines and find a way to get what they want without breaking any rules.

That is the likability trap. In an effort to create a sympathetic protagonist, spec writers often overlook the key principle that interesting is more important than likable.

Put the flaw to work. A real flaw has big consequences that make the protag's life a constant impending disaster. An addiction, a phobia, a sin that doesn't stop at venal. Matching this flaw to your tone creates a relatable, sympathetic, interesting protag.

Nice is not compelling. Nice is a compromise, a state of social cooperation. There is not a lot of story in nice. Readers will get behind a protag who takes the gloves off when it's time.

Change is hard. Stories are about things that have to change, basically. Tyrants must be toppled, injustice must be rectified, the downtrodden must climb up, etc. Matching the interior change to the exterior change creates a protag that resonates with the reader.

— ANNIE LABARBA 

Annie is a screenwriter, story consultant, and reader for major screenplay competitions.

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GIVING NOTES TO YOUR FRIENDS