Hello Screenwriters.
My name is Shaun. I am a Stage 32 Exec, Gotham Award-winning independent film producer, member of the Producers Guild of America, Repped Screenwriter, Script Consultant and educator.
I've been in the film and television industry for 28 years and producing for 14 of those years. Over the years I have been privileged to work with and learn from some of the greatest filmmakers and performers in our industry - from James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and Judd Apatow to Joe Wright and Peter Hedges. From Christopher Walken and Ben Stiller to Courteney Cox and Jack Black. As a writer, I have pitched everyone from Imagine Entertainment. Chernin and Temple Hill to Macro, Scrap Paper Pics, Keshet and WB.
Just wanted to provide a few of my bonafides before I share what I'm going to share... and I should say up front, if you don't like what you read here, "don't @ me." I'm trying to help... in my typical, brutally honest style. As a writer, I know the value of a straight-forward. honest assessment.
After a number of interactions recently with writers both through my consulting page on my personal website and through Stage32 I thought I would offer some free advice here to get you started off on the right foot:
You have to think of the interactions here on Stage32 (and out in the world) as more than just a one-off consult on your material. It's like with actors and casting sessions... You're never just auditioning for the role you've been brought in on. The session is an opportunity for an actor to display some personality for the casting director so that, if you're not right for that particular role, you might be brought in for something else in the future. So too with Stage32 and writers. It's not merely a conversation about your script or pitch deck. It's a sample the Exec can keep in mind for the future. And the consult gives the Exec a sense of you as a person. Are you receptive to notes and feedback or is it all kind of litigating your "why this, why that"?
This website provides you with extraordinary access to people with a lot of experience and connections... and if they are on here offering that expertise it is, with rare exception, because they (we) genuinely want to help guide writers and others to help people get a foothold in the industry. That access could even lead to your material getting optioned or purchased.... or to your being considered for an OWA in the future. So you need to treat it as such and put your best foot (script/deck) forward.
That starts with being professional in terms of what you submit. While I and the other Execs on this site realize that we may come into contact with writers at all levels, there is simply no excuse for submitting a draft that is littered with formatting and grammar issues. It’s 2022! We all have spell-check. And there are free screenwriting programs that will handle all of the formatting for you!
At the very least you should proofread your draft before sending anywhere. Anything less smacks of unprofessionalism or worse, just plain old laziness. If I am five pages into your script and it's riddled with typos... if you slug a scene with INT. and the next line is "Joe and Jane walk through the park"... If your slugline reads "EXT. PARIS," but has no other identifier and I'm left to wonder, "where in Paris?" ... If you have failed to properly describe the geography of a setting or which characters are present, I am going to stop reading.
You might be saying, "but people like Tarantino make spelling errors all the time! Can't you just look past it?"
Well. There are two answers to that question:
1. You're not Tarantino. Only Tarantino is Tarantino... which is why, while we've certainly had a few imitators since he burst onto the scene, we haven't found anyone else who can truly do what he does the way that he does it.
2. If you truly are a genius writer... and if your characters, plot and scene construction are so good that I am immediately sucked into your script and cannot stop turning the page, then yes, I can ignore formatting issues or typos. But the percentage of writers whose scripts are ready to go... perfect from page one... is so infinitesimal as to be borderline non-existent.
And to be clear, I'm not talking about one misspelled word every 12 pages... I'm talking about pages littered with typos and mistakes such that the read is simply frustrating.
"So what should I do?"
Well, again, proof your material before sending. Run a spell-check. Do a pass where you look at your sluglines and make sure they match up. Check characters names. I would also recommend that you get ahold of scripts for films and shows you like (and some you don’t) and analyze them carefully. What works? What doesn’t? How do they convey character through action and dialogue? How do they format? How do they express action, setting and geography? How do they show you what's important in a scene?
There is no better example to follow than by reading a ton of scripts. Sure, Save The Cat might be helpful... or Story... but reading a variety of material is critical. And most scripts can be found online these days for free.
If your script, despite being properly formatted and void of typos, has given me no sense of where we're going or even what kind of tone I should be imagining after fifteen pages and I have no sense of who your characters are or what they want, again, I will most likely stop reading.
Lastly, be conscious and respectful of an Execs time. It takes a minimum of an hour to an hour and a half to read a script. Then you have the thirty minute or one hour consult. I personally like to read each submitted script twice - once to just experience and absorb it... familiarize myself with character, setting and plot and the second time to read with a more critical view so that my notes and suggestions can be rooted in your story and be useful to you. Now that's my choice to do it that way, but even if they only read once, you are asking a lot of the Exec's time. And yes, we get paid for the read/consult, but it's not a lot of money when you break it down by hours spent. And from your side, if you're going to spend your hard-earned money, don't you want to give yourself the best opportunity to learn something from the session? To potentially make a useful contact for the future? To receive helpful and actionable notes that can help improve your material? If so, be sure you are starting out in the right place.
In closing, I wish you all the best out there. It's an amazing time to be a writer with more outlets and opportunities than we've ever had... so take advantage of those opportunities and those offered by Stage32 and make the most of them.
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Excellent advice!
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Hi Shaun, this is a really great post and you should write it as a blog as well :) I'm a literary editor and I say exactly the same things when people say to me 'does it really matter if there are a few typos and grammatical errors'. I tell them 'yes, it does', because if it's a novel and you want to puplish it, you want the reader to experience the story, not be annoyed by typos and grammar mistakes. Also, publishers need to see that you care enough to make sure it's the highest possible standard, because if the writer doesn't care, why should the publisher? I think the execs and readers here do an incredible job. I've written a screenplay and had amazing feedback on it that taught me a lot. I am also currently adapting a novel into a screenplay and I have no idea what I'm doing, but the advice I have received in the lounge has been outstanding and I feel priviliged to have got advice from such amazing people, that I wouldn't outside of this site.
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Thank you Shaun O'Banion for this. I've done my share of screenplay sacrilege and have learned the hard way. Most execs such as yourself, continue to give us what we need to succeed. Thank you for that.
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Thanks JD Savage !
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@RosalindWinton I'd be happy to write it as a blog if they ask me. : )
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Thanks @AbdurMohammed!
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Congrats on your success, and thanks for the advice, Shaun O'Banion. Steven Spielberg is one of my favorite directors.
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I agree with Rosalind Winton, Shaun O'Banion. This would be a great blog.
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I've met with Shaun a couple of times about one of my scripts he read. He's a real gent. And apparently, a fast reader. It took me 6 hours to slog through a script over the past few days and then an hour to write my notes.
As far as grammar and typos, I now religiously use Grammarly to review my work and also do a read-through using the Final Draft voice app to help identify awkward dialogue and omitted words.
Thanks for posting Mister O'Banion. Happy to see you sharing in the forum. Forum readers will find this post helpful.
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Hi Shaun, as a producer are you looking for anything?
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Great info! As a new screenwriter I'm curious about how execs and producers read and analyze someone's work. I've consulted with a couple script consults and they've helped me in more ways than I expected, so now I analyze scripts as a reader, not a writer. Thank you!
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Shaun, thanks so darn much for posting this!
Even with my paying job as a machine operator at a plastics factory and considering the fact that I've got a lot of bills to pay (including Medicare...I'm 66 years old), I don't have a lot of money to spend on script coverage...so I make sure to read other writers' screenplays and teleplays every day I can before I go off to my paid job.
And I'm happy to be my own proofreader...even if, from time to time, I STILL find typos in the stuff I've turned in.
That's why I strive to get it right the first time...from formulating a logline to establishing plot points to creating an outline to typing out the actual screenplay. (The key word is "strive!")
If what I've written can't turn a reader on, I've got to fight to make sure what I've written does the job. Might take a bunch of revisions and repostings...but I'll get it done.
So glad you're here on 32...and I wish you all the VERY BEST!
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Good advice! I still remember getting feedback with the positive point of "no spelling or grammar mistakes, that's quite rare!" and I couldn't believe it. The lowest of bars
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It makes far more sense to take the time to proofread your script than to not, considering how long it takes to write it and it shows you care. Anything you can do to get your best foot forward.
You can pretty much find whatever you need on the internet, tonnes of blogs, videos, etc. on grammar/spelling. My Grammar skills growing up were never my strong suit. But I honed them over years and it was a great investment of time.
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Thanks all for the kind responses. I'm glad you all found it helpful. And thanks for the positive feedback, Phillip!
For those who are asking, we are not developing any external material at the moment. Doesn't mean that won't change in the future, but for now we're developing our own material.
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Shaun: You're most welcome and best of luck with your work!
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Thank you for your honest assessment !
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Shaun O'Banion this is excellent advice for writers. When I first started out writing I was hesitant about getting advice for my work as I was worried it would make me feel incompetent about my writing and I'd be disappointed. Little did I know at the time that writing at a pro level wouldn't happen overnight, after a couple of months, or even after several screenplays. It takes time to work on your craft and to improve your skills to get to that level.
Getting feedback fast tracks that process. Feedback allows you to see a different perspective of your writing and provide you ideas on how to improve the script, which ultimately all executives want to see happen. Learning this has helped me seek more feedback and improve my scripts, figuring out the tools to use said feedback and analyse it. I try as much as possible to be unbiased when reading feedback, often re-reading it later to fully understand why the reader made such comments. This has helped my writing tremendously and to anyone reading this take Shaun O'Banion advice as I've experienced first hand the benefits of being open minded to feedback and presenting your work to the best of your ability.
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Shaun O'Banion I have worked as a writer and editor most of my adult life, so I am with you on this. Constant typos, grammar errors and misused words (words that don't mean what the writer thinks they mean) make my internal spell & grammar check work overtime, to the point that it can be hard to concentrate properly on the actual story.
So, yes, use the spellcheck, use the dictionary, and look up grammar issues.
And I know that for some, dyslexia is part of the mix. I have worked with dyslexic authors. I get that it can be a challenge, but there are so many tools readily available to help with that.
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As a professional consultant, it is my job to help you get your material to a better place - or at least what I believe is a better place. You have to remember, art is subjective, so if you show your draft to ten different people you're going to get ten different takes. You will also notice repetitive notes and all things aside, those are the parts of your story you need to focus on.
I can't speak for others who offer script consulting, but I try not to make judgments, so if I give you a note I'm not judging you as a storyteller. It's also good to keep in mind that my notes are just my take on your material and you DO NOT HAVE TO USE THEM. I tell all my clients, "if I've given you a note you fundamentally disagree with, then dump it. It's YOUR story. They're YOUR characters. Only you ultimately know what your intention is." But what I will do is tell you if I think the intention is unclear. I will tell you if things are confusing. If you haven't done the math in your setup to properly lead into your payoff.
If you're a new writer it can be hard to take a note... it can all feel very personal. And it is! After all, this is your heart and soul poured out on the page (or screen), but know that the notes are not a referendum on your skill or ability. Skill and ability come with time like anything else. And if you don't believe that writing/storytelling is a skill that can be learned, you are sorely mistaken. It absolutely can be improved by practice. I read things I wrote as a baby writer and, man, they're just... not good. But if I read my stuff over a period of years, there is progression. There is absolute improvement. I still have a long way to go and I may never be great, but I will continue to improve - and so will you.
All writers know that the art and craft of writing IS RE-WRITING. It's in the subsequent drafts and polishes that your material begins to improve. Now maybe you actually are one of those people who can write a shootable draft in a week... I can't. And I've never met anyone who can, but if that's you, well done! Your only hurdle is getting read.
Anyway. Thanks again to everyone for reading and commenting. Let's all keep writing!