A spec script has one job: to tell a story well enough that the reader keeps turning pages. Beginners often add things that belong to someone else’s job, such as the director’s, the composer’s or the production office’s. Each one pulls the reader out of the story, and many readers take it as a sign of inexperience.
This guide covers seven of them, with what to write instead. The layout of the page is covered in How to Format a Screenplay. This guide is about what goes on the page.
Which script this applies to
Everything below applies to a spec script, the kind a writer produces independently to tell a story, sell it or use it as a sample. A shooting script is a different document, prepared for production, and it carries things like scene numbers and technical notes. If a script will be read as a sample, follow spec conventions.
1. Camera directions and transitions
Shot calls such as ANGLE ON, CLOSE ON or PAN RIGHT, and a CUT TO: after every scene, belong to the director and the editor. Script Magazine’s reader column notes that studio-era scripts carried these choices, and that modern scripts are expected to describe what happens and what people say. ScreenCraft adds that each new scene heading already implies the cut.
Instead of:
ANGLE ON the door. CLOSE ON Mara’s hand trembling on the handle. CUT TO:
Write:
Mara’s hand trembles on the door handle. She does not turn it.
The shot is still there. The reader pictures it, and the director stays free to choose it.
2. Line readings
A note such as (angrily, through tears) tells the actor how to say the line. Script Magazine lists line readings among the things to leave out of a spec. A parenthetical earns its place only when the line could be misread without it.
Instead of:
MARA (angrily, through tears): I’m fine.
Write:
MARA: I’m fine.
She slams her palm on the table, once, and leaves it there.
An action carries the emotion without instructing anyone.
3. Specific songs and music cues
The Script Lab calls naming songs one of the oldest beginner mistakes. ScreenCraft gives three reasons: the reader may not know the song, choosing music is not the writer’s job, and a studio may not be able to get the rights. Not every writer agrees, and some allow one or two songs when a character performs or the story depends on one. For a spec, the safer course is to describe the music.
Instead of: naming a hit single.
Write:
A slow pop ballad drifts from a cheap radio.
4. Detailed costumes, sets and title sequences
Script Magazine also advises against detailed descriptions of settings and costumes, and against describing titles or credits. The reader needs enough to picture the world. Costume and set designers decide the rest. The detail worth keeping is the one that tells us something about the character.
Instead of:
Mara wears a navy wool coat with brass buttons, a mustard scarf and black boots with a two-inch heel.
Write:
MARA (30s) sits in a damp coat a size too big.
5. Production paperwork
Scene numbers, cast lists, colored revision pages and a synopsis inside the script all belong to production, not to a spec. ScreenCraft points out that a cast list in a spec pilot makes little sense, because the roles have not been cast. The scene numbers, the color pages and the synopsis page can all wait.
Instead of: a cast list, scene numbers and a one-page synopsis.
Write: a title page, then page one of the story.
6. Exposition dialogue
The label “As you know, Bob” is writers’ shorthand for a line in which one character tells another something both already know, only for the audience’s benefit. A quick test: if you can put “as you know” in front of the line, rewrite it.
Screenwriting teacher John Yorke has described exposition as the easiest thing to write badly and the hardest to write well. His remedy is to give the information a reason to be spoken inside the drama. When a character needs to know something, the line works.
Instead of:
DAN: As you know, your brother has been missing since the fire two years ago.
Write:
A NEW TENANT points at an empty chair.
NEW TENANT: Who sits there?
DAN: Nobody. Not since the fire.
The second version gives the same fact, and someone in the scene wanted it.
7. Cliché openings
A script reader writing on Final Draft’s blog calls the protagonist’s morning routine, with an alarm clock and a groggy wake-up, the most frequent opening cliché in amateur scripts. A dream that ends in a wake-up comes second. No Film School adds that an ordinary morning on page one signals that nothing special has started yet.
These are tendencies, not laws. No Film School notes that Ferris Bueller’s Day Off begins with Ferris waking up, but on a day that is anything but normal. The test is whether something is already in motion.
Instead of: an alarm clock, a mirror and a coffee.
Write: the first scene where the story is already underway.
One test for everything else
Before keeping any element, ask what it tells the reader that the story needs. ScreenCraft’s list gives a blunt version of the same rule: leave out scenes that do not take the story forward. That applies to anything on the page, not only to these seven.
Quick reference
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| ANGLE ON, PAN RIGHT, CUT TO: | What is seen, so the shot is implied |
| (angrily, through tears) | An action, or the line itself |
| A named song | The kind of music, in a few words |
| A full outfit and set inventory | One detail that reveals character |
| Scene numbers, cast list, synopsis | A title page and page one |
| “As you know…” | A character who needs the information |
| Alarm clock, mirror, dream | A scene already in motion |
Frequently asked questions
Can I ever use a camera direction?
In a spec script it is generally best to leave them out. When a visual detail matters, describe what is seen, and the shot is implied.
Is it ever acceptable to name a song?
Some working writers include one or two, usually when a character performs the song or the story depends on it. Many readers and teachers advise against it in a spec, partly because of rights. Describing the music is the safer choice.
What is the difference between a spec script and a shooting script?
A spec script is written to tell a story and to be read, so it stays free of technical detail. A shooting script is a production document, with scene numbers and notes for the crew.
Do these rules change if I direct my own script?
A shooting script for your own production can carry production notes. A script that others will read as a sample should still follow spec conventions.
Go deeper
Chapter 9 of The Screenwriting Series, What Should and Shouldn’t Be in a Screenplay, covers this in full.
Which of these did you put in your first script? Tell us in the comments.
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