10 Screenwriting Mistakes Beginners Make (and How to Fix Them)
The ten screenwriting mistakes beginners make most often, and a concrete fix for each one. Keep this checklist next to you and run it on every draft before you send it anywhere.
Chapters (8)
In this lesson you will learn
- Where your screenplay should really start
- How to replace stated feelings with action and subtext
- Why too many named characters hurt the audience and the production
- How to spot scenes without change and inconsistent names using the outline and story elements
- How to break walls of action and why you leave camera directions to the storyboard
- Why parentheticals, a missing midpoint and endless polishing sink a draft
Every new screenwriter makes the same mistakes, and that is good news: they are easy to spot once you know them. This lesson walks through the ten beginner screenwriting mistakes seen most often and how to fix each one in ScreenWeaver.
You will learn to start the story as late as possible, swap stated feelings for action and subtext, merge minor characters, and cut or rewrite scenes that change nothing. Inconsistent names create duplicate story elements, walls of action need to become short image paragraphs, and camera directions belong to the storyboard. Then come parentheticals everywhere, a second act that sags without a midpoint, and the biggest one of all: never finishing. Keep the list next to you and run it on every draft. Lesson 6.2 of a free screenwriting course.
Full transcript
0:04Every new screenwriter makes the same mistakes. That's good news. They're easy to spot once you know them. Here are the 10 I see most often and how to fix each one in Screenweaver.
0:16Mistake 1. Starting too early. The first page shows a character waking up, making coffee, driving to work. Start as late as possible. At the moment, something is already wrong. The night fairy starts at two minutes past midnight, not at dinner.
0:34Mistake 2. Characters who explain their feelings. I'm so angry at you. Replace every stated feeling with an action or with a line that has subtext.
0:46Mistake 3. Too many characters. Every named character is someone the audience must remember, and later, someone you must design. Merge minor characters or leave them unnamed.
0:59Mistake 4. Scenes without change. If a scene ends exactly where it began, cut it or rewrite it until something shifts. Check it on the outline. Every scene should sit under a beat.
1:14Mistake 5. Inconsistent names. The jetty, then the doc. Maya, then the girl. In Screenweaver, that means duplicate story elements. Use the suggestions while you type, and check your story elements regularly.
1:30Mistake 6. Walls of action. Paragraphs of 8 or 10 lines. Break them into images. One paragraph each. Three or four lines at most.
1:41Mistake 7. Directing the camera. Close up on. We pan to. Angle on. Leave it to the storyboard. Write what we see, and the shots will follow.
1:54Mistake 8. Parentheticals everywhere. If every line has an emotion in brackets, none of them counts. Keep them for the rare line that would be misread without one.
2:06Mistake 9. No midpoint. The second act sags because nothing changes in the middle. Look at your outline. If there's no midpoint label, find the twist. The false victory or the false defeat that turns the story.
2:21And Mistake 10. Never finishing. Polishing the first ten pages forever. Get to the end, then rewrite. A finished draft can be fixed. An unfinished one can't.
2:34Keep this list next to you, and run it on every draft. Next, the table read of The Night Ferry.