Do you really need that scene?

When we get first drafts from clients for script notes, a lot of them are too long. As a rule of thumb, you don’t want your script to be longer than 110 pages. 

Why? Because the first thing an agent or producer does when they open your script is look at the page count. If the script is too long, they’re not going to be excited about reading it. Remember, they’ve got a huge stack of scripts to get through and reading them is work. Don’t make anyone do more work than they have to. 

Writing a script that’s too long is easy to do–you get in the groove, the characters are doing their thing, the story is flowing out of you at lightspeed. If you’re a writer, you know how great it feels when it comes that easily. 

But now you’ve got a script that’s too damn long. Time to make some cuts. 

The first thing to do is take a good, hard look at each scene in your script and ask, “Does this scene move the story forward?” 

If you find scenes that don’t advance your story… delete. Even if they’re funny. Even if you love the dialogue. Even if it’s your mom’s favorite scene.  If it’s not doing heavy lifting for your story, it’s gotta go. 

Another way to ask this question is, “If I lose this story, does it affect the ending?” If you can lose the scene and the end of your movie stays the same, say goodbye. 

But don’t just hit delete and send your scene into the abyss of nothingness. Always cut and paste it into a separate document. You might end up bringing a version of it back or using that stellar dialogue in another script in the future. 

The next thing to do is see if you can combine scenes. Do you have a scene that checks the box for moving your story forward but you’ve given it three whole pages to deliver one small piece of necessary information? We recommend either trimming that scene way down or cutting it and slipping the piece of it you absolutely need into another scene. 

Cutting material out of your script can be a painful process. Trust us, we’ve been there. After you’ve done it a lot, you’ll grow to understand how much more powerful a shorter script can be. Over time, you’ll grow to love cutting, because sometimes losing scenes–even great scenes–makes your whole script better. 

For more guidance on how to write a better script, sign up for our self-paced course, Screenwriting Essentials.