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Starting a script is a difficult thing. You have the story, sort of, rolling in your head from eardrum to eardrum. Perhaps you made a pass at jotting a few notes down on the back of a dental insurance form or a scrap of computer paper with some healthy chicken recipe you never made.

Let's say your story is about a fighter pilot who tests a secret government jet, it goes so fast he rips through time itself creating a wormhole and crashes the secret jet in pre-historic Mongolia where he invents the wheel and goes down in history for inventing things his modern world already created. It's a rambling and short synopsis, but if that note was found months after it was written in a desk drawer, the writer would remember, "Oh! I was going to write a script with that."

So where does this writer start? With the pilot already at the the secret government location? At home, the day of, arguing with his wife about who has to pick up the kids from the babysitters? Do we see him in flight school, where he excels at all the tests except one? Does he have a co-pilot? Who is he? What government does he work for? Does he have to go to pre-historic Mongolia? What if he goes back in time and makes amends with his father? Why not go back to the dawn of man so the script can be thematic about the evolution of mankind and how the need to be better instead destroys?

A million questions begin to pour out, one after another until the writer stops dead, too many questions and all he wants to do is write about a fighter pilot. Maybe he envisioned a fight scene. A love interest. An action film. Does he still need to consider the other aspects of the story? Does the writer need to create a life for the fighter pilot even if all he wants to write is a science-fiction comedy with some physical comedy and shots of boobs?

Of course the writer does. Or rather, of course the writer should. There are plenty of comedies where it is obvious the actors are only playing themselves, side characters are caricatures or stereotypes, the world is superficial, and scenes are created with the sole purpose to set up the next one. Yet we laugh. We see the films, buy the DVDs, and watch them again when they're on cable. I wish I could say there are answers to how to write a successful script that will definitely be produced and loved, but there are not. It could be a matter of luck or chance, divine intervention of karma. I will admit I am in control of no one's career. I hold no key to that door that makes the amateur writer the professional, all I have is some experience in breaking down scripts to determine what works and what does not, what could be done better and possible ways to make these changes.

My suggestions are not the only way for a script to go, they are just the different ways I can see it going and working based on my opinion, my tastes, likes, and dislikes. I've kept myself awake nights with stress after sending back coverage to a writer, wondering, "Did I cover all the bases? Did I really try to get what they were going for? Did I miss something that could have helped?"

Sometimes I hear back from a writer that feels I did miss something, or read something the wrong way and to that I can only say, "Write it clearer next time. Know what the script is about, who these characters are, what this world is. Be certain of your story and write it." Clarity is difficult. Having clarity of the story in your head and turning that into clarity on the page is where the art and the craft of screenwriting, or any writing, needs to come into action.

There are films that are made that fail or just stumble at times yet we enjoy them. Why? Because overall there is a clarity, and no matter if a scene doesn't work or character is out of place, the idea rings so clear that we, the audience, go along for ride.

Going from script to screen it is obvious that some things just need to be seen and not read to be understood. A generic character that falls flat on the page can explode and steal the movie with a great performance by a gifted actor. How does that work? How does that script even get made? Well, beyond connections and marketability, the overall script most likely had a clear tone and genre. The writer knew what they were going for and wrote it.

Next, I'll be looking at the script for THE CRYING GAME by Neil Jordan. A script that is simple in its written form yet reads complex and once on screen, the script becomes a wonderful film about loyalty, friendship, and to me, how the wandering soul with no purpose will latch on to something, to anything, just to keep moving.