Read Lovely Books
The good, the bad, and the daunting from Hollywood script readers
I want to preface this article by saying that I am by no means the most seasoned
I’ve read books on the craft (and still do as I continue to learn), experienced a
But there is still a lot I need to work on, and as much as I love
Here’s what I learned and what I hope could be beneficial to you if you ever
They said they felt connected to the main character and were thoroughly invested in her journey from
Wow! What a compliment! Thinking back, I was incredibly emotionally invested in the character’s story, and
As far as what could have been improved, the reader’s main note was that the pacing
There were also decisions made by the protagonist in the third act that seemed like a vast
In the end, the reader said they really loved the themes and emotions of my script overall
This wasn’t a bad way to start the feedback process until…
I actually received comments from two different readers with this particular competition
In this case, both readers felt I had a strong premise and an interesting angle for a
This point mainly boiled down to the fact that I had my protagonist make a decision that
In essence, her character arc went backward instead of progressed
There is some overlap from the first reader here, which I feel is useful as it shows
I was actually the most surprised by the results from the third competition
Overall, they liked the idea but felt the plot, execution, and character arcs could use work
I’ve been a fan of this particular film festival for a long time, and I even
This was a really nice way to end my experience of paid script critiques
My second takeaway is that if you have a gut feeling about what is and isn’t
Reader feedback will amplify the more vulnerable parts of your screenplay, so if you have problem sections
Lastly, I learned firsthand that having solid pacing and structure matters
Going into the fourth draft, I plan to rework the significant plot points beat for beat and
I’m thankful to have entered my “still” messy third draft when I did, as it gave
I needed a firmer grasp of my protagonist’s development from the beginning
Her journey started to slump in the second and third acts because I didn’t fulfill her
Robert McKee discusses the importance of fulfilling a character’s conscious and unconscious desires in his book,
It’s also clear that she has an unconscious desire to feel secure in herself and fulfill
The antagonist is just as important as the protagonist in any story, and my screenplay lacked this,
There was a character that could have been a strong villain, but because I didn’t introduce
The dialogue was also an area in my screenplay that proved lackluster
I got wrapped up in a few cheesy philosophical statements with my dialogue
My characters also ended up having similar voices, which comes back to the issue I had with
I plan to have less but more purposeful dialogue in my next draft as well as better-defined