20 Things You Just Did Wrong When You Wrote Your First Screenplay

4. You Used Bold

Screenplay 40 Just don't use it. Ever (and many would argue with the same degree of severity that you rarely need to underline words, either).

3. You Probably Included At Least One Cliched Line Without Realising

Screenplay 22 Because we're exposed to movies in such high volumes, hearing those "cliched" phrases on such a frequent basis has largely desensitised us to them. The less of these things that find their way into your screenplay, the better. Take another look at what you've written, and see if anything seems familiar to you. If you feel like it might be a cliched phrase, or an overused one, or is similar to something you heard in another movie somewhere, scrap it. It's - quite simply - not the worth the risk.
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.