Sunday, November 29, 2009

I know I should really go over my script for typos and grammar and junk - but I hate that stuff!

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I soooo totally know what you mean. This is not my strong suit either! I mean, I love talking structure and plot and character; but when it comes to what I call 'housekeeping', I cringe!

I suppose this is as good a time as any to let people know that I draw the line at that kind of stuff in my critiques too. I won't check it for you - and I certainly won't detail it in my reports. I 'story edit' not copy or text edit. Big difference! Although, if it's really bad I will advise you to consult a grammar or punctuation guide.

Fortunately for us, there are people who actually groove on this kind of thing. I have a dear friend who LOVES it (go figure!). She really takes delight in helping people figure out the exact phrasing and punctuation to make their story shine. A good copy EDITOR is worth every penny you spend. So if this is not your first love - get someone on your team who relishes it!

That's because as much as you and I really dislike having to do this stuff; it's IMPORTANT. Not doing it can really harm the overall first impression of your script. And you know what they say - 'You only get one chance to make a first impression.'

Producers are generally really busy people; but they DO want to find a GREAT SCRIPT. But like most of us, they won't wade through poor formatting, or stupid grammatical errors to find the story. IF you don't care enough to shine the shoes on your project - how can you expect them to care enough to read it? For a busy producer, a script littered with bad grammar, poor syntax and misspellings is usually only worth the trouble to recycle it.

Don't give them that reason when it is so easy (relatively speaking) to rob them of that excuse to toss your script. DO your HOUSEKEEPING. It makes you look professional, and caring and SMART! And in the end, it doesn't really matter if you hired someone else to do it. You were smart enough to do THAT and caring enough to do it too!

I hope this helps. I wish you luck with your screenwriting. And I really look forward to really your perfectly formatted and beautifully spelled script!!