Comments on Write Here, Write Now: 5 Openers That Make Readers GROAN

This is brilliant. Thanks! Walking - oh the sh...

2012-02-19T01:00:54.968-08:00

This is brilliant. Thanks!

*Walking* - oh the shame! I'm guilty. Never on a spec though.

Have previously retweeted this @ScriptSense.

Cheers for everything you do for us!

Thanks, Lucy. I reposted most of this on Adelaide ...

2012-01-04T13:23:45.595-08:00

Thanks, Lucy. I reposted most of this on Adelaide Screenwriter. Wonderful work. We appreciate you down under... http://tiny.cc/omya2

http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/alien.html ... o...

2011-12-25T15:49:50.820-08:00

http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/alien.html ... opening page of Alien is neither full of dialogue nor black stuff ... reads great too ;)

@terraling I think Lucy's point is more what i...

2011-12-25T15:39:23.609-08:00

@terraling
I think Lucy's point is more what is happening when you open your script ... check out Le Samourai, Driver and Drive for pages of no dialogue but no worse a read ... it's what's happening that's going to get the reader not the shape of the page ;) (I imagine)

@terraling Unfortunately, I think you're righ...

2011-12-23T08:20:10.536-08:00

@terraling

Unfortunately, I think you're right about readers not wanting a load of the black stuff. In my early years I used to champion this too, but gradually came to realise that this is not actually a good philosophy to have, especially when dealing with screenplays for feature films. It's a reader's job to read a script. If they're not keen on a load of the black stuff they should get over it or get another job.

In all the years I've been writing, working in...

2011-12-23T08:13:03.680-08:00

In all the years I've been writing, working in the industry and developing scripts, I have never EVER accepted this rule that you need to grab your audience in the first 10 pages. You need to grab them at page 1.

Ha - love this post. It's the alarm clock that...

2011-12-22T13:10:07.568-08:00

Ha - love this post. It's the alarm clock that's a killer for me. Just so common in scripts. The one time this is ok is the first scene of Four Weddings, when we see Hugh Grant waking up and swearing. You have to be bloody good to play with a cliche like that.

In his Raindance book Elliot Grove describes how n...

2011-12-20T04:06:26.251-08:00

In his Raindance book Elliot Grove describes how nearly every front page looks the same, like a T, where there are a few lines of decription and then straight into a page of dialogue, or sometimes an I (wrong font, an 'I' with bars at top and bottom) where you have a few lines of description, mostly dialogue, and a bit more description at the bottom. What made him get excited about a script was someone who could write an opening page or more of description with No dialogue.

But in my experience, most readers hate that shit, it goes directly against the rule of not much black stuff, gives an oh-boy not gonna be an easy read impression.

The opener is where you grab your audience by the ...

2011-12-19T03:09:50.904-08:00

The opener is where you grab your audience by the scruff and let them know you mean business. I would add to your list the longing look...
ugghghg. Mary looked into the distance at the wind/rolling hills/cows/etc. It was going to be a long night..OMG save me.