What Makes a Great Script

Good scripts ... are entertaining. They’re bursting with content, they shine with intent and unity. They have an overriding idea and work to illustrate that idea with genre moments: heartbreaking tragedy, gutbusting comedy, spine-tingling horror. Everything makes sense, every line has a purpose and intelligence, even if its only discernible after the fact.


This is from SCRIPTS EXIST TO ENTERTAIN. CHARACTER AND PLOT ARE A MEANS TO THAT END, NOT THE END ITSELF here.  This the Story Coach site, also linked on the SCRIPT COVERAGE page you'll find on one of the tabs above.

What does "entertain"  mean?  To this writer, in this context, people seek an experience in film.  If they

Parade's End

have that experience, they have been entertained.  Some people want to be educated or made to laugh or have their point of view validated or just get the hell out of their life for a couple hours. But writing is p so personal and often so solitary, how can we make sure we're doing that?

Everything makes sense, every line has a purpose and intelligence, even if its only discernible after the fact.

We could start by checking our scenes and see if they meet at least this criteria. But I thought the most significant thing in the article was this:

Movies can be bad or good, smart or dumb, noble or base, so long as they’re entertaining. It doesn’t matter if a movie is SOPHIE’S CHOICE or DEEP THROAT, so long as it engaged with the audience on some level. A Transformers movie has thin characters and an arbitrary plot – they still make bank because people all over the globe find the spectacle of giant robots fighting engaging. A movie must entertaining, to entertain they must engage with the audience’s emotion. Plot and character are means to this end, not the end itself.

If no one is invested in the story, connected to it, if they just don't give a rat's ass what is happening or will or did, that's failure to entertain. Or just failure.



Can also be found on Reddit, where you can discuss: http://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/2b5n90/authors_note_the_next_six_pages_arent_important_i/