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Screenwriting Mantra: Minimum Words, Maximum Impact
The origin and importance of one of the best screenwriting mantras… ever!
I know the source of this mantra. It was one of my online screenwriting students. During a weekly live-chat session. I was going on and on about the importance of writing tight, taut, lean scene description, make it easy on the eye, clean on the page, really getting on my bully pulpit. Then a student typed:
Minimum words, maximum impact?
Here I had been guilty of the very thing I was decrying, then — boom! The perfect comment. Four words. And maximum impact indeed!
Screenplays are a unique form. Unlike novels which can be hundreds, even thousands of pages long, a feature length script is typically no longer than 120 pages, even less nowadays with action, comedy, and horror scripts clocking in at 90–95 pages. Simply based on the fact that you have a limit to the page count means you should be mindful of how you approach your use of words when handling scene description.
Beyond that, there is an aesthetic consideration. Scripts filled with black ink are not only less pleasant to look at, they’re harder for a reader to get through. White space is more attractive to the eye, which can have a psychological effect on a reader, and can make a script a better read. In truth, I’ve known some…
