by Robert L. McCullough, WGA

Your script is finally finished and you're probably anxious to get it into the hands of agents, producers, actors, or studios.

But in the back of your mind, you might not be all that certain your screenplay is truly ready to compete on the professional level.

Hopefully, you’ve mastered the art of story telling, structure is second nature, and your snappy dialogue and fully-drawn characters move your story to a compelling resolution.

But let me share a little secret about the realities of moving your writing from the page to the screen: When an experienced writing-producing-directing-development professional opens your script, it takes 45-60 seconds to tell whether or not you have a freaking clue about what you’re doing…and whether they should bother reading it at all.

Giving a script the "green light" is rare. Once a screenplay moves up the food chain of development executives, agents, and producers, everyone suddenly needs to go to work, and invest a lot of time and money into your writing. It's just far easier to toss your work into the recycling bin for the slightest reason and move on to the next script sitting on the desk.

Your job as a writer is to avoid giving anyone any reason to reject your script. Here are some of the things that will immediately get your screenplay rejected because they are the sure signs of an amateur:

• Scene numbers. Easily spotted on the first page. Until your spec script gets financing, casting, a director, and a production team, it has no business using scene numbers. Sure, they look cool, but they’re meaningless and distracting in a spec script. Don’t use them.
• Lists of any kind. Cast list. Location list. Prop list. Day/night breakdowns. None of that will make your script a good read…and your script must read well before anyone will ever respond to it. Let the producers and the prop department make the lists. You’re the writer, and don’t forget it.
• Stage directions that read like Ikea instructions for building a coffee table. That includes telling the actors how they’re supposed to “look” or “feel” in a scene, or how you want the director to place the camera or block the movements of characters. Of course, you can indicate action, but leave something to the imagination. “The car plunges over the cliff” is sufficient. How the wheels are spinning or how the gravel is scattering and in what direction means nothing, because the important thing is that the car plunges over the cliff. And if you really want to guarantee that no director will want to work with your material, be sure to include things like PAN LEFT or DOLLY IN or RACK FOCUS. 

Yes, your script is a blueprint for a brilliant film or television episode. But you’re the architect, not the finish carpenter. Clutter your blueprint with details better left to others, and your script will look like the cluttered, over-written work of an amateur.