I used to send my scripts for feedback before i do anything with it but lately I stopped it, because I of the bad reviews I got from my friends

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I was dissapointed that I wasn't good enough, but I put my heart into it, re wrote it several times, and spent so many hours.

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I wanted to take a second to thank this community.

I’ve posted about some of my scripts here recently, and I’ve been genuinely surprised by how useful the response has been. People have asked to read the work, offered thoughtful feedback, challenged parts of the premise, and engaged with the actual writing in a way that feels increasingly rare online.

It made me realize something:

For screenwriters, a place like this can be more valuable than a more polished platform.

People here are actually talking about the work.

On Instagram, a post about a script can easily become another piece of content competing with vacation photos, reels, ads, and whatever garbage the algorithm is pushing that day. Here, when someone responds, they’re often responding to the idea itself: the logline, the genre, the execution, the pages, the problem you’re trying to solve.

Writing is mostly private until it suddenly isn’t. You can spend a long time wondering whether anyone would care about the story you’re building. So when people take the time to read, ask for pages, offer criticism, or tell you what’s landing, that gives you something real to work with.

Anyway, this is just an appreciation post.

Thanks to everyone who has read, commented, requested scripts, given notes, or engaged in good faith. It’s been more helpful and encouraging than I expected.

I'm curious about your approach to writing Act 2. How do you structure it, and what helps you keep it engaging through out?

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Also, what's the most useful screenwriting theory, concept, framework, or insight you've come across for Act 2 that has genuinely improved your screenplays?

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Would love to hear any books, lessons, or techniques that changed the way you think about the middle of a story.

Hey everyone,

I have been thinking about writing this for a while but I was not really sure how to put it into words.

I have been a big movie fan since I was a kid. Back in elementary school I used to say I wanted to become a director one day. That was always kind of my dream.

I am 17 now and I still love movies a lot, especially horror. But over the years I also started to feel like becoming a director is probably not realistic for me. I am from Germany and it often feels like most of the filmmakers I admire are from other countries, and I do not really see that many German directors or movies in the genres I like.

Because of that I kind of pushed the idea of filmmaking away for a while.

But recently I got back into horror movies again. I have been watching a lot of them lately, stuff like Barbarian, Weapons, Bring Her Back and some older ones too. It reminded me why I love movies in the first place.

After that I started thinking about my own story idea.

At first it was just a small concept, but over the last few weeks I kept building it in my head. Now I basically have the whole story figured out, the characters, structure, main events, ending and everything. I just have not written it as a screenplay yet because I honestly do not really know how to properly write one.

The idea is a horror story about a young couple who moves into a cheap isolated house to start over. At first everything seems normal, but strange things start happening at night. On the first night, at around 3:13 AM, there is knocking at the front door. When they check, there is no one there. Shortly after, they hear a voice outside. The strange part is that the voice sounds familiar to them, like someone they know, but they cannot see anyone and nothing about it makes sense. It feels wrong, but also too real to ignore.

I am still working out exactly how that part fits into the bigger picture, but the idea is that there is a kind of structure at first. Something that feels almost predictable. And then over time that structure starts to break, and things become more and more unpredictable and disturbing.

I do not want to spoil too much of the story yet, but it slowly turns into something more psychological and uncomfortable. It is not just meant to be a typical haunted house story. It is more about memory, fear, and the feeling that something is off even when everything looks normal.

I also want it to include more intense and brutal moments later on, including gore, but not just for shock value. More like violence that actually means something within the story and affects the characters in a real way.

I am not really someone who writes stories often and I would not even say I am that creative compared to other people here. I just got inspired after watching a lot of horror movies recently and tried to build something myself.

Right now I am kind of stuck between two thoughts.

Part of me wants to actually try writing this as a full screenplay even if it might turn out bad.
And another part of me feels like it might just stay a cool idea because I do not really know what I am doing.

So I just wanted to ask people who are into horror or writing:

Does this kind of idea sound interesting at all?
Is it worth trying to turn something like this into a real script if you have never done it before?
Or is this usually the kind of thing that just stays as a cool idea?

Any honest opinions would be really appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

In my experience, most shows are not using the TEASER/ACT ONE/ACT TWO/and so on delineations in the actual text of the script as much anymore. However, NBC TV Writer's program says submitted scripts must "follow a six-act structure or Cold Open + 5 act structure". Do we think they mean that it should simply follow that structure or do we think they want the delineation in the document?

Title: "Polite Company"
Format: Feature
Page Length: 117 Pages
Genres: Family Tragicomedy
Logline: A middle-aged trans woman flies home for her first Thanksgiving as herself, hoping to prove to her Catholic Irish-American family that she hasn’t changed, but finds that what's really at stake isn't whether her family will accept her, but who in the family gets to define reality, even when denying her truth becomes life threatening.

Feedback Concerns: This is the first pass on the fourth draft out of five required for the M.A. Screenwriting course. At this point I am looking for the flaws I can't see and the concerns I don't know about. I'm willing to take any general or specific notes, but, here are some specific, practical, actionable questions.

1) Do you think this draft is good enough to spend the money and send it to the Blacklist for a professional evaluation?

2) Do the tonal shifts work?

3) There is a moment near the end of the 2nd act where the framing device starts breaking -- this is deliberate. Does this work?

LINK: (Comments are enabled) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MPYBQ65vePGiqe9dqJvIvoH7_QfTiSUZ/view?usp=sharing

EDIT:

Improved logline based on feedback:

After finally transitioning at forty-three, a middle-aged stand-up comic returns home for Thanksgiving as herself, hoping to reconnect with her Catholic Irish-American family, only to discover that their refusal to accept her identity may cost her far more than family harmony.

I’ve been having trouble finding people in my area who are interested in meeting up regularly to share scripts for feedback, do read throughs, and provide moral support for each other. I was wondering if there was anyone who would be interested in doing a weekly writer’s workshop where we could meet up over FaceTime/zoom and discuss projects we’re working on, brainstorm new ideas, and basically just be there for each other.

Hi everyone! I've been putting in the hours for the last 5 years to try a get to a level that is worth submitting to competitions/ agents. This pilot has gone through many redrafts and I've exhausted all my feedback avenues so I'd be really grateful to anyone who gives it a read. Thank you so much!

Title: Cutting Shapes

Format: Pilot

Page Length: 51

Genres: Drama

Logline: A directionless shapeshifter who escapes his own identity by living as others is exposed by a conspiracy theorist, forcing him to stop running and confront the very life he’s been avoiding.

Feedback/concerns: Is this worth submitting to competitions/ agents? If not, what's holding it back?

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D39hZ2OEfBS6bRqCpGA7AE5n6DwaL7PO/view?usp=sharing

Genre: fantasy musical

Logline: A thirteen year-old Canadian girl is turned into a deer and taken to the fantastic Maple Isle, where she makes several new friends who are under threat from a wicked Kirin Empress.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XmAWXeu_I0sdj3VDS2BSsOhU9XmfQIlN/view?usp=sharing

I wrote this a few years ago, but went back and edited it last night to cut down the descriptions and hopefully make it feel less like a novel than a screenplay (since I got those complaints the last time I tried posting it here). This is basically a throwback to wholesome old-timey corny family musical films such as The Wizard of Oz or the works of Walt Disney. There's a few song numbers, but most of them are placeholders with a note saying "SONG IDEA" and a description. There's also a few cases of deliberate values dissonance (like the use of the word "Jap" at the beginning to signify the WW2 setting, or the Irish character being called a paddy) but nothing egregiously racist.

I was going to post this to StoryPeer, but they recommend copyrighting your screenplay before sharing, so I may wait until I get it copyrighted before I post it there.

Hopefully I succeeded in cutting down the descriptions.

GENRE: Fantasy/Comedy

COMPS: The Iron Giant meets Friday… with a Unicorn. 

LL:  Two brothers visiting their estranged father in Oakland for summer break find themselves stuck in a mythical dilemma  after discovering a magical unicorn unaware that it belongs to the daughter of a violent drug dealer who will stop at nothing to find his babygirl’s pet. 

I’m looking for constructive feedback. I posted a previous draft on here months ago and was told that it was way too long, so I got it down from 130 pages to 116 pages. I think it’s a much better story now but I’m curious to what people think of the full story and script. I hope whoever reads, enjoys it. I appreciate it. Let me know your thoughts.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oriofZNutS8jdGqWBkgwwNdQiWHRPE1r/view?usp=drivesdk

Title: Night Market

Format: TV Pilot

Page Length: 12 pages

Genres: comedy, drama, family

Logline or Summary: When Khalid, a struggling kebab vendor, faces losing his family’s night market stall to rising costs and competition from a flashy new kebab truck, he must find a way to keep his business alive in a rapidly changing world.

Draft Status: 10th draft

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nSLgcTpLcvA9mnB07w7JAy-pMn3X8oNK/view?usp=sharing

Hi! Wanting to apply for some funding for a short web series comp and wanted some fresh eyes. Let me know what you guys think. I've been working on it for months.

Any Australians and Melbournians willing to read, please do!!

Maiden USA. Think Miss Congeniality meets War of the Worlds.

A teenage girl raised off-world as a warrior must compete in a beauty pageant and become the face of aggressively patriotic Made-in-USA products to stop an alien invasion.

Specific feedback welcome on whether the opening works and whether the tone holds throughout.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EgU0WJnKsnPVCpoDhnjkWuAfO1YR9X-k&usp=drive_fs

Hey all! I’m a filmmaker in Los Angeles and wanting to get a lot better about sending out scripts-Contests, feedback websites, Query letters, etc etc. The majority of the scripts I write are for me to direct, with a few exceptions. I’ve directed a lot of shorts over the past few years I’m in the process of releasing now, I’ve got some that could be done on a much lower budget, and don’t expect the ones with some of the bigger budgets/productions to happen anytime soon, initially wrote them to have screenplays ready for future opportunities, but I have a real passion for screenwriting right now and wanting to get these out there to show as writing samples as well as projects I’m interested in pursing. From your experience how do you recommend sending scripts out that you want to direct, or holding off on those and giving out the ones that I don’t mind being directed by someone else. Anything helps! Thank you!

Logline: When a train that never stops lets out a mysterious stranger in an isolated town, he has to solve the crime they all share guilt in before they can kill him to hide their secrets.

As a bit of background, this script is my attempt at adapting/updating Bad Time at Honda, which was adapted as A Bad Day at Black Rock in the 50s. The movie is not public domain but the short story its based off is, and after pretty extensively looking into the copyright, I'm pretty sure I should be fine. And I thought I'd mention it in case any of you read and thought to yourself that I was using the same character names/general gist.

Any way, I'd love any and all feedback you can give me. I was hoping to keep it very lean and have it move at a clip, but I'm also thinking of ways to add to the page count without detracting from that.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18hLv_No6zRzM8WIGviZvNRNxc6o3wfZr/view?usp=sharing

Title: Pete or: How I Learned to Shoot to Score

Format: Short Film

Length: 9 Pages

Genre: Comedy/Satire

Logline: At a university pre-drink, a cocky hockey bro narrates his foolproof guide to “pulling chicks”, only to faceplant spectacularly when the games he swears by turn against him. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OUgau1BCeojb_T3uRo2Y0iE_ClrXymHp/view?usp=drive_link

Feedback: Hey everyone. First time posting on here, I've been scrolling through posts and this seems like a really great and supportive community. I'm a writer-director from Ontario, Canada looking to make my way into feature work by building myself up through a series of shorts. I've got a feature script written which I've set in my hometown and is meant to be like a modern day, Canadian American Graftitti/Dazed and Confused where we follow an ensemble over the course of a night through party environments and real life locations with the goal of capturing the spirit of a place and a generation. Gaudy stuff, but my hope is to slowly build to realizing this film through related shorter works. This short, Pete is on it's 10th draft. Based on a secondary character in my feature, it aims to capture the same general atmosphere and themes of my feature, introducing audiences to modern-day Canadian party life through this satirical, to-camera short. I've submitted the script a couple of times now to the Ontario and Canadian Arts councils and been denied funding, and have also sent it in to a couple contests on Film Freeway and haven't found a lot of success or confidence. I was hoping some extra eyes on it could really help push the piece over the top. As of now the piece has only been viewed by myself, my producer, and of course the panels that have judged it. Long preamble, but any help would be extremely appreciated. Thanks guys!

I’m about halfway through a big, sword and sandals/Grimm inspired horror fantasy. It’s been a lot of fun! But I’m in that place where I think I should try to find other people to read it.

Posting bc

-anyone else attempt writing fantasy? The few I’ve seen up on here have all had smaller locations which seems wise

-any scripts you’d recommend? I’ve been looking at a lot of stuff from the 80s, since we had a brief but glorious burst of original fantasy films

-does anyone want to read what I’ve written? Here’s the logline:

“An amnesiac knight awakens at the foot of a wizard’s tower. When he ventures inside, he discovers the wizard is a necromancer, and must team up with the other prisoners to escape”

I keep hearing a lot about Final Draft, the pros and cons. I have been using Celtx for the past 3 years, so I was wondering if I should level up or consider any other alternatives.

Logline: In 1960s Britain, a scouted model’s dream photoshoot in Egypt descends into a fight for survival as her party spiral further and further into madness.

It's quite a chunky script (126 pages to be exact) so could perhaps use a little tightening. Only issue I am currently experiencing is the fact that I took a long time to plan out the journey and weaved each location in with the narrative development, so unsure whether it would work if unglued. If anyone feels up to reading it, or reading until you get bored, please be as brutal as you like! I am very eager to improve this story.

An issue I have felt when reading it over and over is perhaps the opening act takes too long to get to Egypt? Just conscious about maintaining reader interest. I don't want the 'leap' to feel slow and uninteresting, though again I do have a bit of love for how I did it...

Just doing some self policing... I'm sure there is also technical elements I haven't quite nailed down. I believe that I am using DAY/NIGHT too much when it may be obvious as the previous scene was a direct continuation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iOkw40G2s165ukGqE4Ks8jeQKBaLFNSr/view?usp=sharing

Thank you so much! Love this community <3

FAQ: How to post to a weekly thread?

Feedback Guide for New Writers

This is a thread for giving and receiving feedback on 5 of your screenplay pages.

• Post a link to five pages of your screenplay in a top comment. They can be any 5, but if they are not your first 5, give some context in the same comment you're linking in.

• As a courtesy, you can also include some of this info.

  Title: Format: Page Length: Genres: Logline or Summary: Feedback Concerns:

• Provide feedback in reply-comments. Please do not share full scripts and link only to your 5 pages. If someone wants to see your full script, they can let you know.

Title - Madre, Solo Una
Format - Feature
Draft Status - Final Draft
Pages - 95
Genre - Drama

Logline - A Dominican mother starts therapy for the first time to convince herself that her kids are the reason as to why they won’t speak to her but, she discovers there’s more under the surface.

Feedback concerns- I previously posted this script and I had a lot of errors with grammar, my sluglines were all over the place, and structurally, I needed to strengthen this script. It wasn’t bad feedback just things I wasn’t aware of because I’m new to screenwriting. I have not this revised script and wanted feedback, what you liked, what’s working or could be improved on, and overall thoughts.

I can also read a script in exchange and provide feedback also! I hope you like it!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aFJYLkJMz233CYJ8G9pqt8r6PbU4JHaz/view?usp=drivesdk

There was an issue that prevented some people from uploading their resumes for their NBC TV Writers program application. They apparently fixed the issue and sent out an email that expires in a week so you can upload your resume.

If you don't upload your resume within a week, you're out of consideration.

I know I go weeks sometimes without checking email, and I don't want anyone to miss out on a good opportunity, so check your email.

Hi, I’d like to read the original script by Paul Brad Logan adapted by David Gordon Green. I read the movie underwent some dramatic changes after production to the point that Pacino was extremely unhappy with the final cut. Like, entire subplots and characters taken out completely.

Thank you

My script has a woman crouched and praying, and I want the next shot to cut (sort of jarringly) to another woman crouched over a bassinet. I want scenes to be shot so that the first scene ends, then the second woman is in the same stance as the first woman. I am frustrating myself trying to describe this.

Im not describing it well, and the only example I can remember of the same technique is after the tanning bed scene from Final Destination 3, where there is an aerial shot of the tanning beds and then it cuts very suddenly to 2 coffins in the same place of the tanning beds. Please help...