Six Questions to Ask Your Script Before Contest Season

Contest season comes earlier than it feels. Last cycle, the PAGE Awards' early deadline was January 15. Austin Film Festival's early-bird deadline was March 27, and its script competition filled up before the late deadline in May. The 2027 dates aren't posted yet, but if the pattern holds, the weeks between now and January are your revision window.

Here's the order I'd work in. Fix the big things first and polish last.

1. Can you say it in one sentence?

A story is a hero's struggle against an obstacle to reach a goal. Write your logline and check that all three are there, along with a clear genre and a hint of irony.

Producer Lynda Obst called the logline "the miniaturization of the idea." If you can't write it, a reader won't find the story either.

2. Does your beginning set up your ending?

The beginning sets up the ending the way the first part of a good joke sets up its punchline. Read your first and last scenes back to back.

The best endings are surprising, inevitable and meaningful. Does yours pay off what page one promised?

3. Does every scene earn its place?

Ask David Mamet's three questions of every scene:

• Who wants what from whom?
• What happens if they don't get it?
• Why now?

Then ask Robert McKee's question: what changed? Something that matters to a character should turn from positive to negative, or back, in every scene. If nothing happens in a scene, that scene probably doesn't belong in your movie.

4. Are you arriving late and leaving early?

Arrive in each scene as late as you can, and once we know the outcome, end it as fast as you can. Most scenes in a draft start two beats early and end one beat late.

5. Does every word pull its weight?

Require each word to pull its weight. If it doesn't, replace it with one that does, or cut it. It should take about as long to read about a location as it takes to see it on screen.

6. Does the page look professional?

Make a format pass last:

• Courier font
• A new scene heading every time the place or time changes
• Present tense throughout
• The same name over a character's dialogue every time
• No clutter of camera directions
• Plenty of white space

Then proofread.

Then get two readers

If two or more readers flag the same problem, take it seriously. Give yourself a day or two with the notes before you make a rewrite plan.

StoryChatPro can be one of those reads. It scores your script from 1 to 10 against Save the Cat, The Writer's Journey or Dan Harmon's Story Circle and asks the questions that lead you to your own fixes. When the script reaches 7.5, you can book a session with a professional script consultant.

It's free to start at storychatpro.com.