Why should you avoid them? What is a speed bump? It's a berm of asphalt designed to slow down any speeding traffic on streets that don't want speedy traffic. But there are speed bumps in screenwriting and storytelling. Those are anything that confuses, distracts, diverts, or slows down the reader in your script. They can be anything from typos, weird or awkward formatting, bad blocking (of characters in a scene), incorrect word choices, and more.
Who cares? It's a minor thing. Yes, it is a minor thing. So are mosquitoes. Those minor things can add up to the reason why a reader or producer sets your script aside and chooses something else.
The alternative is a script that has been polished to such a great degree that there are no excuses for a reader to stop or slow down their journey through your story. The result is an unfettered ride through your world and a "fast" or "good read."
So, be aware of them and look for them in your script, maybe not in your first draft, but definitely right before you're going to hand your second draft to someone to read.
Enjoy the polish. Your screenplay will be so shiny!
5 people like this
This is correct. This is at its core craft. If you cannot even use the language in a professional way, you will not be able to craft a professional story.
The single point I would rephrase is the “set it aside”. Some may do that. But I think it is more like looking at the Mona Lisa wearing dirty glasses. You can see the art, but it doesn’t do it justice and it makes appreciating it a lot harder.
All these things are speed humps, so why would you leave them when they are easy to remove.
I am also a fan of putting myself in the other person’s position. What would you feel about a person that couldn’t even be bothered proof reading their work before sending it to you?. Let’s give this writer the benefit of the doubt and say they are not disrespecting us. In that case, this is the best they can do. Do I want to work with someone if this is their best.
Remember my fellow writers, we are not rare. There is a lot of us.
2 people like this
"But I think it is more like looking at the Mona Lisa wearing dirty glasses. You can see the art, but it doesn’t do it justice and it makes appreciating it a lot harder." Love it!
3 people like this
Yeah, a swarm of mosquitoes is no joke, Melton Cartes. Neither is a swarm of speed bumps in a script. I suggest writers do a rewrite where they go through their scripts, focusing on just removing speed bumps. Great post/advice, Melton.
1 person likes this
Biggest "speedbump" is boooooooooooring....and no polishing can save that...
3 people like this
Boring is not a speedbump. Boring occurs in the outline, synopsis, treatment phase. What I'm referring to is literally an end-result polish phenomenon.
Eliminating speedbumps involves slowing down, humility, and a fine-toothed comb. I learned that editing my writing. Looking for unnecessary words, awkward constructions, figuring out the actual timing/sequence of described events, or just forcing myself to cut my writing by 50% made for a much more precise script.
Boring is solved at the logline/premise.
And yes, if you can afford to pay someone, an objective observer, that's worth gold. Even $20 could probably do the job. Seeing your script through their eyes...."chef's kiss."
3 people like this
I recently was persuaded to cut one of my scripts by 10 pages. That was to specifically move a plot point 10 MINUTES sooner. I managed to cut it down by 15. So, I added a useful scene and still hit the 90 page mark.
4 people like this
Great topic to bring up. You don’t want to distract your reader from the story you’re trying to tell.
3 people like this
My speed bump is question marks. Apparently I don’t like to use them, lol.
3 people like this
Why. (See what I did there?)
5 people like this
I’ve always been a huge believer in table reads. Bring a few friends together and assign characters and someone to read the directions and just listen to the work coke alive. It’s easy and fun and it’s so helpful in knowing what can cut or be tweaked and what works perfectly. I always recommend doing a reading of any script at any point in the process.
2 people like this
Absolutely. Anything that brings in the objective view of one's work does wonders.