Screenwriting : A Quick Thought Before You Ask Someone to Read Your Script by Leonardo Ramirez

Leonardo Ramirez

A Quick Thought Before You Ask Someone to Read Your Script

I absolutely love making new connections here on Stage 32. Every contact I make is an exciting one — a relationship I hope to nurture and grow over time.

That said, in our zeal to reach our dreams, we sometimes forget that this is an industry built on relationships.

Before asking someone we’ve just met to read our script, consider planting a seed of trust first. Take the time to get to know them. Build the foundation.

Then you’ll have a much clearer sense of who’s truly in your corner — and you can move forward from there with confidence.

Emilio Briceño

Thank you for sharing this, Leonardo. It’s a great reminder. Coming from Venezuela, I’ve learned that persistence is key, but I truly value your emphasis on building genuine relationships first. Looking forward to learning from this community.

Leonardo Ramirez

Thanks so much Emilio Briceño - so glad you're with us!

Mike O'Neill

Great advice as well for when writers ask someone else if they can read THEIR script.

Leonardo Ramirez

Absolutely agree Mike O'Neill. Top notch advice right there.

Kylar Washam

do you have any advice for someone who has just now started writing at 34 with no background, experience or connections. I want to learn from anybody and everyone

Leonardo Ramirez

Hi Kylar Washam - if you're wanting to write screenplays, the first thing I would say is to be patient with yourself. Stay active in the screenwriting lounge and learn as much as you can from the posts there: https://www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting. There are no silly questions here so ask away when you have one! Get to know people and foster relationships here on the platform.

If you've not written a screenplay and want to learn how, reach out to edu@stage32.com and they can recommend some classes that will help. There are also great books to learn from such as Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters, Save the Cat and The Hollywood Standard by Christopher Riley. The last one is essentially a roadmap to how to format your script.

Hope this helps!

Kylar Washam

thank you so much for the reply I sincerely appreciate it a lot I will definitely check those out, I have written a kind of mini script to kind of get use to the format it’s been trickier than I anticipated but I am understanding it better now again thank you for the reply my friend

Leonardo Ramirez

You are very welcome Kylar Washam. Sounds like you've written a script for a short film. With respect to the format, I use Final Draft as a screenwriting software. It's not cheap but it takes the guesswork out of that part of the creative process so you can focus on story. I will say that before you write the actual script, it helps to outline it first. You can try and use the "Save the Cat" beat sheet calculator for that which you can find here: https://beatsheetcalculator.com/. IF you have a projected number of pages, you can plug that in and it will tell you what page each given script should go on. That way, you can map and better outline your script before you actually start writing.

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