I’ve been a lit manager for 19 years, and I regularly do notes consultations with writers. So, I read a ton of scripts. There's a note that I end up giving a lot of the time, so I wanted to chat about it here. I believe that all your scenes should be driving story.
Writing for TV and Film is a game of real estate. You don’t have endless pages to tell your story, this isn’t an Anne Rice novel, so using your real estate is very important. If you aren’t pushing your story forward in some way, why is that scene in your project? When I ask that question, one of the comments I often get is “character development,” which is of course necessary. Ideally though, that character info is something we need to understand so we get why that character reacts to something further down the line, so “driving story.”
What nugget of information is in a scene that we need to move forward? If you can remove a scene from your script, and have it not impact the story at all, I feel like there is an issue with that scene. Now, I don’t think the answer is always removing the scene. If you like it, I feel like you can massage it, and make it drive story. Maybe add that nugget of info to that previously useless scene, and voila, now it’s useful.
Writing is not black and white, and I’m not saying that you can’t have a scene in your piece that is just there for comedy, etc., but when the idea is to write a tight script that will keep the attention of the potential producer/studio/financier/actors/director/etc/etc/etc, why not make sure everything in there is there for a real reason?
As always, happy to answer any questions.
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Another piece of advice I wish I had managed to consume before diving in initially with my first project. It is so hard for a new writer to recognize when a scene is not moving the story forward because as we write the words on the paper they seem integral and part of the story. Having professionals read your early drafts can be expensive but if you manage to have the right exec giving you feedback it can literally shave months off of the learning process. Thanks As Always for these nuggets Spencer Robinson