Writing a script is really, really hard. You have to fit a dozen pieces together to create an experience that engages a reader and creates an emotional journey. And that can take months, maybe even years, to get into a place that feels right.
So when you’re finally finished and ready to get reads, it can feel extremely frustrating if no one bites when they hear your idea. What gives? You worked really hard, and your screenplay might be stellar!
But the thing holding you back might not be your script at all.
Jacob Michael of Big Red Stripe just broke down the mechanics of why scripts get passed over, and the culprit is probably sitting at the top of your submission email.
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Your Logline Is the Entire Filter
“Nobody in Hollywood is requesting a script because they heard it was well written,” Michael said. “They’re requesting it because the premise made them lean forward.”
The reality is that, in Hollywood, sometimes scripts from a grammar or writing standpoint are, um, buns. When I was an analyst, plenty of error-filled scripts reached me in story development despite their weaknesses—because the ideas were interesting enough for an exec to bite.
And those ideas are usually presented in a logline.
Think of the logline as the bouncer at the door. If it doesn’t do its job, nobody gets in—regardless of what’s inside. A “well-written” script with a weak premise will lose to a mediocre one with a killer logline every time. If your logline is bad, your script will never get far enough for a reader to discover how well you can write.
What makes a logline work? Marketability.
Can a reader picture the poster or trailer? Who would they cast? Is there an identifiable audience?
For more on what makes a logline pull its weight, check out how to write a logline and whether loglines are even worth stressing over.
The Two Types of Script Worth Writing
Michael introduces a way to rethink your project slate. According to him, there are only two types of scripts worth writing if you want a career: a script you can sell, and a script to get a meeting.
A script to sell is commercial-genre work. It has a clear lane (thriller, horror, action, elevated genre, or some combination) and audience. It shows you understand the business. You have casting appeal and a marketable hook.
A script to get a meeting is something else entirely. It’s the ultra-high-concept premise so audacious that someone reads it and thinks, “We will never in a million years make this, but I have got to read it,” Michael said.
In fact, there was a whole bit about this on a recent episode of Hacks, where Ava (Hannah Einbinder) meets with a rep about one of her scripts and is told, “It’s so nuanced. It’s so specific. So original. So, obviously, we can never make it.”
But those scripts get passed around offices and remembered, sometimes for years. They get you in rooms.
Michael’s advice is to write the get-a-meeting script first if you’re trying to break in. You’re trying to make noise. We’ve covered how the goal of a great spec often isn’t a sale; anyway, it’s the meeting.
You Can’t Fix a Bad Premise
Everything in screenwriting is rewritable. Dialogue can be reworked, you can shuffle structure around, even change your characters if you have to. But “you cannot fix a premise that never had a pulse,” Michael says.
Think about your goals. Are you writing a spec to get representation? Wanting to win a contest? Or trying to get something produced? Because each is a different thing.
Before you work on that draft, ask whether your premise is marketable or just interesting to you. Per our guide on spec screenplays, the scripts that get people talking are the ones where the idea itself does the heavy lifting first.
And then make sure you have a stellar logline to sell it.
