Imagine reading the first few boring pages of a script? Will you continue, expecting a twist till the end? Here’s the bitter truth every aspiring writer needs to hear: industry script readers, who are the gatekeepers who decide whether your screenplay ever reaches a producer’s desk, usually make up their minds within the first ten pages, no matter how good your story is. But the most irritating thing is that most of the common errors made in screenwriting which cause a movie studio to give the film a “pass,” have nothing to do with a poor core concept.
Creative and skilled writers get rejected all the time, not for the poor plot of the movie, but because a few errors make them lose interest in the script. It only takes one poorly written action line or dialogue, and the coverage report finds its way into the trash. The reader never sees the brilliant twist on page sixty because they stopped believing in your craft on page four.
The good news? Each and every single one of these problems can be resolved. In this guide, we discuss the most common screenwriting mistakes to avoid and provide you with specific and actionable steps to resolve each mistake. These are the very basics that we teach in our Script Writing and Direction Course here at Tiju’s Academy. Let’s turn those rejections into requests for the full script.
Overwriting Action and Camera Directions
Directing from the page is one of the most frequent blunders made by novice screenwriters. Novice screenwriters tend to describe their scenes in minute detail in lengthy paragraphs, and they are prone to inserting a variety of camera shots like PAN TO, SMASH CUT, CLOSE UP ON, or ANGLE ON. This may sound very cinematic, but it is actually one of the best methods of revealing your lack of experience.
Why It’s a Problem?
A screenplay serves as a blueprint for the making of a film rather than a complete book. The reading process becomes very slow when the actions become long, having six to seven lines. Camera instructions are just as bad because they hinder the work of the director and cinematographer, who have to decide about such things themselves. One of the worst cases of poor screenplay writing involves pages filled with so much technical information that the actual plot cannot be seen anymore.
The Fix
Embrace white space. Split up your action in short bursts, no longer than three or four lines per chunk. Don’t leave white space empty; it is used to control the pacing of the scene.
Show, don’t tell. Remove the internal thoughts of your characters. We can’t see a thought on screen, so replace it with a visible action. Instead of writing that a character feels nervous, show the leg that won’t stop bouncing.
Direct through description. In place of “CLOSE UP on John’s trembling hand,” write “John’s hand trembles against the steering wheel.” You’ve stated what you mean without getting into anyone else’s business. This is a core discipline we drill in every workshop at Tiju’s Academy, because clean, confident action lines are the mark of a professional spec script.
Unnatural or “On-the-Nose” Dialogue
If overwritten action is a visual problem, on-the-nose dialogue is the audio equivalent. It happens when characters state their exact feelings, motivations, or backstory outright: “I am so angry at you because you betrayed me ten years ago!” No human being talks this way, and yet it’s one of the most persistent mistakes in script writing.
Why It’s a Problem
People do not say what they really mean most of the time. Straightforward dialog is not only boring, but it takes away all the suspense in any scene and even worse, it implies that the audience is too stupid to know what is meant without being told explicitly. Viewers want to do a little work. When you spell everything out, you rob them of the pleasure of discovery, and the scene falls flat.
The Fix
Master subtext. Subtext is the underlying meaning of the words. Make sure that your characters discuss the subtext around the main issue rather than addressing the issue itself. For example, if two people are getting divorced, don’t make them discuss the issue of divorce but make them discuss something insignificant, such as who should keep the chipped coffee mug. This is subtext in movies, and it differentiates an outstanding scene from a dull one.
Cut the greetings and goodbyes. Real-life small talk (hello, how are you, see you later) is deadly on screen. Enter your scenes late and exit them early. Start as close to the conflict as possible and leave the moment it resolves.
Read it out loud. Role-play the script or even better, let someone else role-play it for you. If you find a line difficult to speak, that line is difficult to watch. Good dialogue always gives different voices to different characters. You would not want your lawyer to speak like a teen, and you do not want your villain to speak like your hero. This simple habit of reading aloud is one of the most powerful tools we hand our students, and it’s woven throughout the Diploma in Scriptwriting and Direction course at Tiju’s Academy.
Pacing Issues and Late Inciting Incidents
Structure quietly makes or breaks a screenplay. Too often, an initial blunder is in spending entirely too much time getting the story going: wasting thirty pages introducing characters without even getting into conflict yet, or allowing the middle of the script to devolve into a weak and formless second act where nothing of substance occurs.
Why It’s a Mistake
Considering that a typical script is 90 to 120 pages long, and one page is equal to one minute of screen time, if your inciting incident, the thing that starts the ball rolling in your story, has not occurred between pages ten and fifteen, you’ve lost most people’s interest by then. A weak second act is just as deadly; it’s where great ideas go to die and readers lose their interest for good. Bad pacing and structure are one of the major killers of good scripts.
The Fix
Hit your structural beats. You don’t have to be enslaved by the formula, but it helps knowing about the three-act structure. Make sure you have an inciting incident to let the audience know from the start what’s going on and why they should care.
Increase the stakes. In case your second act is dull, make your main character’s life even harder. Escalation creates dynamics. Think of it as a screw that gets tighter with every turn. Each time, make your character’s escape a little harder and the goal a bit more urgent. It’s important that every scene either moves the plot forward or shows us something about the characters or both. If a scene fails to do any of that, cut it mercilessly without pitying its pretty words.
Make sure that the scenes follow each other in the order of “therefore” and “but.” Following a rule made famous by South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone: your scenes have to follow one another in the form of “therefore” or “but,” and never “and then.”
“Therefore” and “but” create cause and effect, the engine of gripping drama. Learning to diagnose and fix pacing is one of the most valuable skills our mentors pass on, and it’s central to how we approach story at Tiju’s Academy.
Formatting Errors That Reveal Amateurs
There’s nothing that shouts out “I’m new!” more than a badly formatted screenplay. This common error occurs when writers boot up Microsoft Word, neglect the right margins, choose any font other than Courier 12pt, mess up their slug lines, and use bold and underlined fonts in a haphazard fashion.
Why It’s Bad
There’s a reason Hollywood uses a uniform screenplay format: it maintains the all-important “one page equals one minute” formula, and it makes it easy to understand the screenplay regardless of who’s reading it. If you fail to format properly, a producer or script reader will know immediately that “you are an amateur” and they will dismiss the screenplay on that basis alone.
The Fix
Use good screenwriting software. Stop using the word processor. Screenwriting programs such as Final Draft, Celtx, Arc Studio Pro, and WriterDuet format your script to industry standards for the Hollywood standard screenplay automatically, allowing you to concentrate on the story rather than margins.
Slug line proficiency. Sluglines always follow a basic structure that includes only the following components: INT./EXT./LOC./DAY/night. Proper slug lines provide instant information to the reader and maintain the professional appearance of your action and scene headings.
Watch your page count. The page count of a feature script is usually somewhere between 90 and 120 pages. A page count much greater implies that you don’t know how to edit, while a much smaller page count implies an inadequately developed story. Page count becomes visible before anything else, it should be taken into account.
Stay clean. Never use italic and boldface text unless absolutely necessary. Let the story do the work. A disciplined, correct spec script format is the quiet signal that you know what you’re doing, and it’s one of the first things we get right with every student at Tiju’s Academy.
Fix Your Script with Expert Review Sessions at Tiju’s Academy
And here’s the problem that no writer can solve singlehandedly: It’s extremely difficult to find errors in one’s work because of how close you are to the story. Because you know what you intended to convey, your mind will supply the missing information for you. That blind spot is precisely why professional feedback is so valuable, and why we built structured review into our programs.
At Tiju’s Academy, our Script Review Sessions sit at the heart of the Script Writing and Direction Course. Students receive personalized, professional feedback from working industry mentors, take part in collaborative peer-review workshops, and get line-by-line script analysis that pinpoints exactly where a page is losing the reader. We think that this practical learning method through feedback is what sets us apart as the premier script writing course in Kerala, and we provide this service both in class and in our online script writing and direction course in Kerala, which means you can learn anywhere you want to.
All we have to do is make sure that you evolve from being an inexperienced individual who commits amateurish errors into becoming a skilled, professional writer. Apart from feedback classes, we teach you everything else that you need to know (story structure, characters, adaptation, and actual direction). That combination of writing and direction is what makes Tiju’s Media School script writing and direction course genuinely different from a standard writing class.
Whether you’re searching for a script writing and direction course in Kerala or the Top Film Direction and Scriptwriting Course in Kerala, this is how real improvement happens: through expert eyes on your pages, week after week, until the amateur habits are gone for good.
Conclusion & Call to Action
If you master these four elements (action lines, which convey the message; subtext-filled dialogues; fast-paced writing, with the help of a powerful inciting incident; and the classic Hollywood format), then you will easily distinguish yourself from other people and be one of the top 10% screenwriters. This is what makes an initially rejected screenplay a desired one for readers.
Don’t write in vain anymore! Do you want to learn how to make your idea into a screenplay? Then take the Script Writing and Direction Course at Tiju’s Academy now and work directly with the people who did it before! Your best script is waiting. Let’s write it together.
