In the immortal words of Leonardo Da Vinci, “Art is never finished; it is only abandoned” — a sentiment that holds doubly true for screenplays. We screenwriters are a naturally obsessive crowd after all, and we’ll always find something to tinker with. A line here, a beat there. All until we’re forced to accept that perfection is, when all is said and done, a fool’s errand. It’s great to have high standards, but chase them for too long, and you risk letting the great become the enemy of the good.
Still, certains things really are worth a second look. Like it or not, there are certain industry standards any aspiring writer with professional ambitions must live up to. And running afoul of such standards is a sure fire way to reveal yourself as an amateur. If ten pages go by before your protagonist is introduced, or if your inciting incident lands just moments before your screenplay’s climax, chances are you’re doing something wrong. And don’t even get us started on format. Just remember that few Hollywood executives are likely to read more than a couple pages of something that only loosely resembles a professional screenplay.
Fortunately, one of the many perks of our current information age is that we’re never more than one or two clicks away from an endless stream of educational resources. Got a screenwriting-related question? Chances are the Internet has an answer.
That’s why we’re building an unofficial encyclopedia of some of the most useful screenwriting articles we’ve come across. From tip and tricks, common mistakes, to in-depth how-to-guides. Our goal? To provide the WeScreenplay audience with a useful database of pesky screenwriting-related issues, along with the proper means for fixing them (or avoiding them altogether).
The plan is to keep this list updated over time, so if you have a screenwriting related question you’d like to see addressed, be sure to drop a comment, or tweet us at @wescreenplay.
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Top 9 Most Common Script Formatting Mistakes – Screenplay Readers
Ten Tips for Creating a Strong Main Character – LA Screenwriter
7 Screenwriting Secrets From the Masters of Great Dialogue – ScreenCraft
Top 10 Ways to Screw Up Your Screenplay – The Script Lab
10 Stupid Mistakes Screenwriters Make – Raindance
4 Essential Elements of a Knock-Out Ending – LA Screenwriter
Ten Format Mistakes – The Story Department
The Best and Worst Ways to Make a First Impression – WeScreenplay
Five Ways to Approach the Midpoint Culmination – ScreenCraft
How NOT to Introduce Your Characters – The Script Lab
Why Plot Holes Happen and How Screenwriters Can Avoid Them – ScreenCraft
The But/Therefore Rule: One Simple Rule for Structuring Your Script – LA Screenwriter
The Eight Sequence Method – The Script Lab
This Scene Sucks: 15 Screenwriting Mistakes to Avoid – Script Mag
5 Traps to Avoid While Writing a Screenplay – ScreenCraft
50 Dead Giveaways That You’re an Amateur Writer – LA Screenwriter
38 Reasons Why Your Screenplay Isn’t Getting Recommended by a Script Reader – No Film School
5 Story Mistakes Even Good Writers Make – Writer’s Digest
11 Steps to Writing a Scene – John August
Three Ways to Make Characters More Three-Dimensional – ScreenCraft
10 Reasons Your Screenplay Sucks (and how to fix it) – Lit Reactor
Top Screenwriting Paradigms/Formulas – Raving Dave
The Top 5 Screenwriting Mistakes to Avoid – LA Screenwriter
The Most Common Dialogue Errors In Screenplays – The Story Department
Reel Story: Most Common Reasons Why Scripts Are Rejected – Script Mag
How to Write a Screenplay: Script Writing Example & Screenwriting Tips – Writers Store
How To Create a Masterful Outline – ScreenCraft
15 Types of Inciting Incidents – LA Screenwriter
8 Common Mistakes Made by New Screenwriters – John August
13 Things Bad Screenwriters Commonly Do – Writers Store
