It’s easy to fall into the many screenwriting traps that most screenwriters face during those first few screenplays. We learn best by making mistakes, and then learning from those mistakes. It’s the natural process of any learning curve — especially when you’re trying to become a professional screenwriter. But what if you could peek into the future and learn how to avoid those traps well before you fall into them? 

With that in mind, here are the most common screenwriting traps new screenwriters can find themselves in, and how you can avoid them. 

1. Don’t Follow Any Single Screenwriting Guru Formula or Process

You never want to find yourself trapped within a single particular formula, philosophy, or process that you’ve learned along the way. 

If you’re doing things right, you’ve started your screenwriting journey through various forms of screenwriting education:

• You’ve taken screenwriting courses (online or in-person) to familiarize yourself with screenplay format and structure. 
• You’ve read screenwriting books written by experienced industry insiders, offering you insight into the art, craft, and business of screenwriting. 
• You’ve attended or watched screenwriting panels and presentations featuring industry professionals.  

You may have studied the teachings of a screenwriting guru that emphasises following a beat sheet that corresponds with various page counts (read Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat). You could have also stumbled upon interviews with pro screenwriters ensuring you not to follow such paged beat practices. 

The key is to avoid falling into the trap of subscribing to any single particular formula or process. You need to understand and remember that all screenwriters eventually create their own process along the way, based on their own personalities, habits, tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses.  

Following a single formula or process can actually hurt you by narrowing your horizon as a screenwriter. There is no single path to screenwriting success. There never has been, nor will there ever be. 

You need to find your own style and voice — that is what will make you stand apart from the rest. Instead of subscribing to just one formula, process, or philosophy, expand your screenwriting horizon by feeding your brain with many different viewpoints, teachings, and perspectives. 

The late martial artist and philosopher Bruce Lee said it best:

“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”

Explore: Final Draft’s Structure Templates.

2. Don’t Write Long Screenplays

There are general guidelines and expectations from Hollywood when it comes to page counts for feature-length movie scripts. The general understanding is that one script page equals one minute of screentime. A 90-page script (usually becomes a movie that is around an hour and a half long (90 minutes), and a 115-page script usually becomes a movie that is almost or beyond two hours long. 

One common screenwriting trap you can fall into is writing an overly long script. It’s not uncommon for new writers to find themselves writing scripts that are 130 to 140 pages long. This can become an issue during the rewriting process, because you’re likely going to be forced to cut down and edit much of what you’ve written. 

Always embrace the ‘less is more’ mantra. Here’s an easy pro tip that can help keep your page count down: follow the 30/30/30 Rule. 

Most feature films have a three-act story, meaning that we are being told a story that has a:

• Beginning
• Middle
• End

If you embrace the three-act structure, you can use simple math to help keep you within the general page count guidelines and expectations of the industry — the 30/30/30 Rule, which is: 

• 30 pages for the first act
• 30 pages for the second act
• 30 pages for the third act

That gets you to 90 pages, with some clear wiggle room if and when you go over. Here’s how it breaks down:

• Use the first 30 pages to first show your protagonist(s) in their ordinary world (opening 5-10 pages), and then use pages 10-30 to throw them into the conflict of your story. 
• Use pages 31-60 to showcase them dealing with the conflict and figuring out a way to overcome it, showing us how they pass and fail, pass and fail, and pass and fail again as the conflict evolves and grows. 
• Then, use pages 61-90 to show how they take what they’ve learned from their failures, and apply what they’ve discovered to either overcome the conflict they’ve faced, or how they eventually succumb to the conflict (tragedy stories). 

If you follow this general 30/30/30 guideline, you’ll be well-aware of the impending and building page count, helping you to avoid the trap of writing an overly long script that Hollywood won’t want to read and that will be so much more difficult for you to edit. 

3. Don’t Forget to Have a Good Marketing Plan

It’s very tempting for new screenwriters to try to market their scripts to all of the big studios, big companies, big networks, big streamers, big directors, and big movie stars. The truth is, if you’re a new writer, it’s very difficult for you to get your script read by the biggest power-players and icons in Hollywood, but if you focus on creating an effective marketing plan, that can more easily lead to positive results. 

How do you create a good marketing plan?

• Get IMDBPro. This pro version of IMDB can offer you contact information for development executives, producers, managers, agents, etc. 
• Look up movies that are similar to yours in genre, tone, subject, scope, budget, etc. 
• Find out what smaller production companies (below the main studio and distributor) are making these movies and query them with a short but sweet request to review your script (submit your logline to them with a brief note of request). 
• Find out what managers are representing the screenwriters who wrote those movies (agents don’t really come into play until there is a deal to broker). 
• Make a spreadsheet of these individuals and companies, along with any possible email addresses offered up by IMDBPro, and there you have a marketing plan!   

You can also market by way of networking. 

• Go to film festivals and writing conferences to meet industry people. 
• Submit your scripts to Final Draft’s Big Break Screenwriting Contest and utilize any contacts offered through any hopefully high placements you make in the contest.
• Work your personal network and contact/query those in the industry you may know, those your friends/family may know, and those who have a commonality with you (from same town/state, from same school etc.).

Don’t fall into that screenwriting trap of just blindly marketing to a blanket of the biggest names in Hollywood. Know that there is the perfect someone out there for your script, you just need to take the proper steps to find them. 

Three Additional Traps to Avoid

1. Don’t “Wait by the Phone” for Results 

Industry insiders are busy — and they have a lot of scripts to get through. Make your query via email and move onto the next prospect. If you’ve entered a screenwriting contest, don’t stop writing and marketing while you’re waiting for the results. Sometimes you won’t hear anything at all. Sometimes it will take weeks or months to get rejected. And sometimes, it can take weeks or months to get that fateful call of acceptance and praise. But never wait by the phone — or by your email inbox. Keep writing. When you’re done with one script, start another. The more prospects you have for Hollywood, the better your odds are of breaking through. 

2. Don’t Have an Ego

Believe it or not, ego is poison in Hollywood, at least for a beginner writer looking to break in. You should always have confidence in your work, yes. But it should be void of ego and entitlement. This is a trap far too many screenwriters fall into because they see big egos in Hollywood — even by way of iconic screenwriters. We’ve all read the stories of iconic movie stars, directors, and screenwriters having sometimes legendary egos. It’s not the way to go, and usually ends with burned bridges. And in Hollywood, beginners need to be building bridges, not burning them down with misguided edo flexing. 

3. Don’t Be Cynical AND Don’t Keep Your Head in the Clouds

Cynicism is possibly the worst trap you can fall into. It’s a survival method that any person goes to when faced with adversity and rejection. It’s very easy to become frustrated with the industry. But what you need to understand is that rejection is something that every screenwriter faces, from beginners to highly-successful icons.  So, don’t fall into the trap of being cynical towards Hollywood, but at the same time, don’t keep your heads in the clouds either. By all means, have big dreams and set your sights high, but make sure you keep yourself grounded too. Cherish and celebrate every accomplishment you make. Stay positive. Believe in yourself. Remain grounded. And have some fun!