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How To Know If A Screenplay Has Been Written Too Fast — Andrew Zinnes
Film Courage: How can you tell if a writer has rushed through the writing of their screenplay?
Andrew Zinnes, Author/Senior Teaching Fellow/Script Doctor: Right. A lot of that has to do with the internal logic of the script, the choices the characters are making and the dialogue that they’re saying oftentimes it doesn’t reflect how they truly are feeling.
Now, I should say that yes, actions speak more than words and a character can be saying one thing but really feeling another. That can be good writing and not rushed. That can be actually a very nuanced, sophisticated way of developing characters but you can tell that if in a way they’re saying just to get through the scene or to get around a point that might be sticky.
For example, if there’s obviously an obstacle that we would think…I’m blanking one right now… but if there’s an obstacle in the way and they’re just trying to get around it very quickly to get on to the next bit, you can sometimes think that they’ve rushed through that.
