Howdy, fellow Stage 32 folks!

My name is Stephen Notley. I'm a screenplay contest reader, as well as a screenwriter with a handful of scripts that I've entered in contests various and yon, all while paying out of pocket for oodles and a plethora of script analyses. So, having played on both sides of the script reading court, I thought I'd offer some thoughts you folks might find useful.

I want to start by talking about proofreading. Here's the headline: Proofread your scripts, people!

Hang on, that's not emphatic enough. Let's try again with all caps and more exclamation points: PROOFREAD YOUR SCRIPTS, PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!

Is that sufficiently emphatic? Do I have enough exclamation points? I'd add more but they're not cheap. Let's proceed as if the basic concept is established.

What Proofing Means: Spellcheck Blind Spots

Spellchecks are wonderful things but as everyone on Earth has probably already told you, they miss things. In my own writing, I refer to these generically as "typos" even though they're not technically typographical errors. What they are, basically, are brain farts. They can include:

• Wrong Words- These are words that are correctly spelled, but not the word called for in the sentence. The four classic examples are "your/you're," "its/it's," "there/their/they're," and "to/too." In some ways, these are the easiest to spot, but there are other less common but more pernicious kinds. Consider, for example, "in" for "is." Or "lad" for "land." Fine words on their own, but big potholes in your sentences when they occur.
• Bad Plural's- These are overwhelming apostrophe's jammed in where they have no busines's. Example's could be "shoe's," "tent's," "city's," or pretty much any damn noun or verb out there. They are legion and they are LAME AS HELL.
• Missing Words- "I'm heading out the store. Need anything?" clunks because it's missing the word "to." Happens all the time.

What Happens When A Reader Reads A Script

The reality is that script reading is work. It takes time to do and I'm doing it for money. It often pays embarrassingly poorly, so I want to spend as little time at it as possible. That said, I'm diligent. I read the whole thing, every page. I also take notes which means it usually takes me around 1 to 1.5 minutes per page to read a script.

I'm reading quickly but with attention. What I'm hoping for every time is a good script, an easy read where the story and writing simply carry me along. When that happens I can finish a script in like a minute per page, and I'm already going to be strongly disposed toward it and inclined to give it higher scores.

This core readability is the number one best thing your script can have, by the way. William W. Makers in "Your Screenplay Sucks", describes the reading process as trying to traverse a lake by sprinting down a trail of lily pads. It is fraught. Every sentence, every word is another lily pad, and I'm just praying they can hold my weight.

What Happens When A Reader Reads An Unproofed Script

First off, you get a couple for free. They're red flags but, y'know, we're all human. We're all fallible. As mortifying as it may be, it is entirely possible to miss some glaring groaner smack in the middle of page 1 after you've read it a hundred times. It happens. I've done it.

The first one's not a great sign, but to use the lily pad metaphor, it's a wobble that allows me to keep sprinting. Add a second one and it's another wobble, my ankle didn't quite turn, and I'm still moving, but now I'm starting to worry. The third one? Ker-DOOSH. That third lily pad gives way and I get dunked. My concentration has been fully broken. I have been bumped out of your story. Worse, I'm annoyed now, stepping lightly because as a reader I no longer trust your writing. If I'm at page six of your script and I'm already clutching a fistful of red flags, I am not happy.

I'll do my best to look past this stuff, try to focus on the characters and plotting and structure and blah blah blah, but you know what? Spelling, punctuation, and usage are the EASY stuff. It's the stuff there's a right answer for and you don't have to spend hours puzzling over. It's the BASELINE for good writing. If you can't spell and punctuate correctly, how am I supposed to believe you can do any of the writing stuff that's actually DIFFICULT? Or, to put it another way, the correlation between an unproofed script and bad writing all around is extremely strong.

Who Cares? Why Does Any Of This Matter?

Look, I get it. As a writer myself, I understand the strong tendency to sigh in frustration and mutter "What friggin' difference does it make?" under my breath about this stuff. I certainly feel that way when I receive coverage that's 90% fussing over formatting style minutia like the difference between "INT. BARRY'S OFFICE. DAY" and "INT. BARRY'S OFFICE - DAY".

But seriously, are we readers so fussy and small-minded that we can't see past these irrelevant boners to see your precious precious STORY? The short answer is Yes. Yes, we are that fussy and small-minded and you'd best believe it. The long answer is to Keep Reading. It has to do with the story your unproofed script tells.

The Story Your Unproofed Script Tells

An unproofed script tells a story, and I'm not talking about the story of an elite team of assassins having to root out a traitor in their midst or the thrilling tale of how the writer's great-grandparents immigrated to Colorado or whatever other thing the script may nominally be about.

What I'm talking about is the compelling story an unproofed script tells of a sloppy writer. Careless. Indifferent to quality of craft. Unprofessional. An amateur. No matter what else is happening on the pages, an unproofed script screams this story at the top of its lungs, drowning out everything else. It is, in its own way, a powerfully effective form of characterization, but of the writer rather than the writer's characters.

Look at it this way (AGAIN with the metaphors): Imagine you're entered in a 1000m race. You're up against 1500 other sprinters. You want to WIN. Quick question, hotshot: Do you blow your foot off with a shotgun right before the starting whistle? Is your story REALLY so amazing and incredible and personal and universal and moving and important that you can take that L right at the starting gate? REALLY??? Would YOU want to do business with somebody displaying these lame traits? Be honest, now.

Simply put:

You're trying to get paid to write.

You want to be a professional writer.

Write like one. And that means proofing your scripts.

That's Not Me, Right? I Would Never Be So Dumb, Surely?

Don't be so sure, Shirley. One-third of the scripts I read in the last six months had this nonsense going on. It is maddeningly common. One in three writers ARE that dumb. Don't be them.

Steps You Can Take

Okay, here's the positive finish. You aren't helpless. Check out some simple tips:

Print your script out and proofread it by hand.

You should do this anyway because it feels awesome to physically hold in your hand the concrete reality of all your hard work. Get all fancy by printing (in Courier 12 font) on pre-hole-punched paper, bind it with a couple of brass brads, and holy smokes, you have a genuine-to-god screenplay right there in the world with you. It is wild. It has heft. It exists.

Once printed, go through your script with a red pen and mark the mistakes. Try not to get too bogged down in edits and rewrites. I know, it's impossible not to tweak some bit of dialogue once you see it on the printed page or realize you can cut a word in your scene description to make it all fit on one line. Go ahead and do that stuff but try to commit to making your way through the whole script in one sitting marking every typo you can find. You will find some, I guarantee it. Get in the habit of 1) feeling embarrassed about how dumb you'd have looked to the reader if you hadn't caught (and removed) that clunky flub, and 2) feeling freshly empowered because you were wise enough to print out your script and proofread it before sending it out.

This single, simple step will move you up through the pack by at least a third.

Get somebody else to proof it.

Hiring a proofreader is simplest, but it costs money. You can ask a friend or family member but be aware that reading and proofing is (see above) work. Don't assume people in your life owe you enough interest in your script to read it. They do not. Be humble and grateful to any friend or family member who agrees to read your script, and that goes triple for agreeing to proofread it. Offer to pay or make sure they know, that you know, that you owe them. Respect the work and recognize its value. It really helps!

In Conclusion, Folks:

PROOFREAD YOUR SCRIPTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(additional exclamation marks on loan from the New York Public Library)

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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