Your screenplay's perfect length

Odds are your script's too long. It'll likely never be the perfect length, same as it'll never be the best it could possibly be. At some point, you just need to hand it over and let things unfold.

Don’t try this as a novice. The Interstellar script comes in at beyond 150 pages. Only once you’re Nolan, Tarantino, or Scorsese, the rules no longer apply.

The right length for a Hollywood script is below 100 pages. Lower than 95 and higher than 110 smacks of amateur. We can argue the numbers forever and a day, but it’s in that ballpark. It’s not fair, sure - but get over it. Your script will make its way into a reader’s hands who’ll start by looking at the number on the last page (plus formatting and spelling errors).  If you’re new to the game, get those right. You want the reader to read your story, right? If you disregard the above, chances are he/she will toss your script – they have better things to do than wasting their time on what they will perceive to be the work of an amateur.

Now, in a perfect world those readers would be benevolent angels with unlimited time on their hands and they’d read everything regardless of pesky little length, or format, or spelling issues. They would focus solely on your story and would surely discover the amazing tale you’ve woven in your 120 page script. But that’s just not the way it works. There are barriers, filters, hurdles, doors – when starting out, you need to do everything in your power to get past those barriers to qualify for even the smallest hint of a chance.

So how then do you cut a great script down to size? Unfortunately, it’ll probably entail some of that dreadful “killing your darlings” bit. But wait! Before you do that ... when I read scripts I often find that I can easily cut up to 10 pages by simply applying the crisp screenwriting style we should all live and breathe. Easy examples are: 

• cut everything that won’t be seen or heard on the screen – how often do you read stuff like “Joe, the long-lost brother of …” Cut it, you’ll reveal that in the story.

• slash everything that  smacks of exposition – show, don’t tell.

• and slice everything that can be condensed – things like “The night is dark, the fog creeps in eerily, the tall willows sway ominously in the wind. Joe looks around nervously.” instead try “Blackest night, it couldn’t be creepier.” 

More often than not we write too much, and that’s because we’re an insecure bunch. We’re afraid that the reader won’t get it, won’t see the moment, won’t understand our passion - unless we really hammer it all home with extra lines. But that’s just it – it is our own insecurity and it is up to us to deal with it. Trust me – readers CAN read – they’ll instantly spot and appreciate crisp writing and yes, they WILL get it if you’ve done your homework.

I love cutting. I love the challenge of condensing a two-para line into a high-impact five-word sentence. If you do that – if you go over your script with that cutting drive, you’ll be surprised just how many pages you’ll be able to shave off your script. Well then – if you’re at 120 – try the above “easy ways” before cutting story elements – you may just find that you won’t have to kill all of your darlings.

Finally, what about that old “one script page = one film minute” adage, you might ask? Well, while there’s no exact science there, of course, there is some truth to it. I’d say that the better you become at the craft of screenwriting, the more that adage will apply to your work. The more you write, the more you learn to trust your words, the fewer you’ll actually need to tell your gripping story.

The Reservoir Dogs script is just shy of 100 pages, the film is 99 minutes - nuff said.

Exercise your writing muscle as much as you possibly can and you’ll learn to trust that your 5 word sentence can grip the reader’s imagination and conveys everything you want them to experience. You’ll learn that what you’ve just written in four action lines can be told through a single glance. If this sounds easy to you - great! You just may be a natural. But for most of us this takes years of practice. So, if you want your 100 page script to be timed as a 100 minute film, you’ll have to apply all of that beloved hyper-concentrated screenwriter thinking to every single line.