You can join a screenwriter's site like Trigger Street or Zoetrope ... while there are some good writers on there, usually people join because they're beginners and just learning, so quite a few of the scripts are lacking (and they're posted to get notes from others to address such) ... it's a real experience to have to read a lot of scripts that are lacking, and it creates a real empathy for those who read for a living ... you learn much from it, I think.

I agree with Joshua's comment. Triggerstreet and Zoetrope are great for not only reading and identifying screenwriting problems, but also forcing you to eloquate when writing a (kind and professional) review.

What is a bad script? Is Avatar a bad script? Is Ishtar? Phantom of the Paradise? Do you base it on box office? Lack of awards? Razzberry awards?

You can learn a lot about your own personal preferences from reading. It's tough to say "here's a screenplay that was produced, it empirically sucks and here's why." What's your definition of failure?

Cheers
Jeff

When I first moved to Los Angeles I found an agent who had a really really (and I mean really) weak literally division and he basically would let anyone read for him. He was WGA signatory and he was listed in the HCD agents/managers edition as a literally agent so he got tons of submissions but he had no literary division. In fact the most recent sale he had was a 'Highway to Heaven' spec script - and this was in the mid 90's! He would basically give me a stack of scripts and if I "recommended" one and he eventually sold it I would get 50% of his agents fee. I must have read over 100 scripts and I never recommended a single one! So if you want to read some bad scripts this is a great way to do it and it really doesn't take knowing anyone. Just open up the HCD and pick a few really low end lit agents and call or email them.

I highly recommend doing something like this as you not only get a look at a lot of bad scripts but you get a look at a lot of bad query letters too and will learn pretty quickly how not to make a submission.

When I did this years ago I would pick up the physical scripts each week so living in LA was essential. But now with electronic submissions I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't talk an agent into letting you do this even if you didn't live in LA.

Ashley at SellingYourScreenplay.com

I was also going to suggest Triggerstreet or the new one Talentville -- what's nice about that system is if you choose participate, you write reviews for scripts that are assigned to you and in that process, you have to figure out why the script isn't working.

An excellent process to go through to apply everything you've learned, and help others make their work better.

Talentville and Triggerstreet work on a system where by the more scripts you review, the more your scripts will be reviewed, so any excellent way to get your work read as well -- although keep in mind many of the people on the site review as well as they write, which isn't great!

I'm going to plug Emily's blog because she had a post recently responding to someone wanting to learn to write good scripts by reading bad ones.

I think it's important for writers to be aware of what NOT to do (Heck, my whole blog is basically devoted to that focus) and given it's reputation, I'm not surprised Triggerstreet is the first place everyone suggests to go for really terrible scripts.

I'd also suggest BALLS OUT - not because I think it's a good script at all but because it aspires to be the ultimate bad script. It's trying to be a parody of every first-time screenwriter cliche, but it's smugness drips off the page so thickly that it becomes a badly written parody of bad writing - both of which are so terrible that it becomes the ULTIMATE bad script. It's the DISASTER MOVIE of bad scripts - in every sense of the comparison.

It's funny for the first few pages, as you realize the gag - then you look and see that there's well over a hundred pages to go and it dawns on you that the joke truly is on you.

Some thought it was hilarious - I on the other hand felt that it was like an Andy Kauffman practical joke. Sure, it's funny hearing that Andy "punished" bad audiences by spending his entire act reading THE GREAT GATSBY - but if you were the schmuck who came to see a show and got stuck in that audience, you wouldn't be laughing at all.

But if you want to see the "cliches" of bad writing - exaggerated to such obvious and on-the-nose effect as works of Friedberg and Seltzer, BALLS OUT is for you.

As a long time member of Triggerstreet, I'm a little bit sensitive to the label of "bad" for what you might encounter at Triggerstreet. It's about sending the elevator down, and the elevator goes all the way to the basement.

Remember that those who have success had to be where others are in the learning curve. Be proud that you've made it that far and that you still have the ability to improve. The writer of that "bad" script may become better than you'll ever dream of being.

I'll be around over at Triggerstreet as long as they'll have me.

It's imperative that you read bad scripts in order to learn. The main reason for this is the same reason that you need to watch student films on Youtube to appreciate professional films in the theater.

When you're watching a movie like Transformers 2, you're like, "This is so awful. This is so bad. It would be impossible not to be able to do better than this." But then you see one of these Youtube student films and you realize, "Oh, my mistake. *This* is the true definition of bad." When scenes cut off for no reason. When the acting makes you cringe. When you see a boom mic in the shot.

It's the same thing with writing. You don't realize just how good even the WORST professional scripts are until you've read a bunch of amateur screenplays. And once you read them, you become aware that - gulp - you make some of those same mistakes yourself! (you don't realize this when you read professional scripts because professionals don't make those mistakes)

Scott and Josh are right. Go to Simply Scripts amateur section or Triggerstreet. You'll find all the amateur scripts you need there. I once made myself read 100 of them. It was painful. It was a horribly taxing experience. But I undoubtedly learned a lot from the exercise.

I'm not slamming Triggerstreet - I got a lot of learning from there, and I ran into some talented writers as well (and read my favorite script of all time there) ... but it is, in essence, a place to learn, a place where you can start from the ground floor and work your way up ... and as thus, there are a lot of badly written scripts in various stages of development ... of course, at some point they may be rewritten until they're good ... but the point of TS is just that it's feedback on works in progress from peers, and as such many scripts will be understandably lacking ...

That's the point, right? And the question was, where to go to read bad scripts?

The awesome thing there is after you've read bad script after bad script, then you come upon one that's well writ ... it makes you get it, right away, the difference.

And that's the point, right?

Of course, the script for "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" is readily available...

Problem solved!

Jeff - Bullshit. I'm still not convinced that there actually WAS a script for that "film."

The way I got my education in bad screenwriting -- I read for a (major, top five) screenplay contest. I ended up reading 250 screenplays in 2 months. It was nightmare-ish. End of the day, I recommended 10 scripts to go forward, 5 or so of them ending up finalists/semi-finalists. I probably read 30 of them carefully because the first ten pages merited a full read, and another 50 or so all the way through. The others? I couldn't read them all the way through or I'd kill myself.

OH, and I busted three pro screenwriters who were trying to "win" a competition for amateurs. The pro scripts stood out like blinking lights. I'd be on page 3 and going - waaaaaiiit a minute. Google the title, see that the script is set up at a studio with a major actress attached, google the writer, find out he sold a previous script for like 200k against 500k, then write the contest coodinator and have them disqualified for having made more than $5000 dollars from screenwriting.

The pro scripts stood out like blinking lights.

Reading for a contest is a good way to find out how wide the range from bad to great is. I would never do it again, but I'm so glad I did it once.

It's a while since I read it, but Good Scripts, Bad Scripts by Tom Pope offers useful analysis of why some scripts failed to maximise their potential.

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Scripts-Bad-Learning-Screenwriting/dp/0609801198

Yeah, the Tom Pope book is a great place to start if you want to learn why some movies work and some don't. I definitely recommend it.

Thanks all. This was exactly what I was looking for. It's great to have comments from people in the know--some of which I already read your blogs.

As people have mentioned above, sites where people can join and put there screenplays up for members to read have screenplays written by people at various stages of experience and ability.
I am on Talentville, so I can comment on that but I'm not on other sites like Triggerstreet so I can't comment on in-depth details for them.
I think Talentville is a great site for reading the work of both beginner and advanced writers, as well as getting feedback on your own screenplays. Not only can you read the screenplays, but you can also read multiple reviews on specific screenplays to check out what others have thought of it and what suggestions for improvement they have given.
Plus you can find out which screenplays are ranked highest for some degree of quality assurance if you want to read quality screenplays without sorting through a heap of lesser-quality ones.
It's free to join and particpate in. I highly recommend it.