Scott,
My ‘light-bulb moment’ came with these comments from your script reader:


“As I start reading, the first page tells me a lot. Does the tone clearly signal what kind of movie I’m in for (genre)? Does the script have me hooked yet? Or am I confused? Indifferent? Bored? Or am I intrigued, excited, amused, unsettled and, in other words, emotionally engaged in some way?”


I KNOW not all of my scripts live up to these expectations – back to the laptop!

Thanks for this wonderful series of articles. Great stuff.

Keep Writing!

Mike, that first page can go a long way in 'selling' a script to a reader -- and some times in helping to make an actual sale. I remember when the spec for Basic Instinct came out. You just needed to read the first page (sex scene and death) to get swept up in the story.

Thanks so much Scott & DC Mar - your sharing is most appreciated.

It helps tremendously to be in the position where we can get 'in the boots' of a reader and look back at the shore to see how far we've come.

I'm drunk.

DC's point of fragments is precisely what I've been looking for - I hate myself.

How does she feel about dashes, I wonder?

p.s. My brother was a Principal in K-9 2 and reported that EVERYONE hated JB. A Whiner they said.

I loved K-9, the original!

Scott, does Wallmart have a pocket version of DC Mar I can pick-up? I'd like to put pocket DC on my desk next to my computer, and feed it cheese, lots and lots of cheese. (joke)

ALWAYS good to hear from DC Mar. I appreciate ALL her advice, though most of it I have heard before from other sources.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

Scott, thanks for posting DC Marr's analysis of a reader's job. I could have written that word for word - I've been a full-time free lance (you know what I mean) reader for 14 years at a big agency. Every point DC made is accurate. It was great fun seeing it so well articulated.

Janice

Scott, I just finished my first screenplay and reading DC Mar's comments have inspired me to go back once again and scrutinize my writing page by page, paragraph by paragraph, for the hundredth time. How do you know when it's time to say, "Enough! It's done! Send the damn thing away!"

@willxmnm: Great question. I'll post that as an Open Forum question and respond within the next week. Look for it on the front page.