500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader: Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend [Paperback]

Jennifer Lerch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 13, 1999

If Your Screenplay Can't Get Past the Hollywood Reader, It Can't Get to Hollywood

This ultimate insider's guide to screenwriting is designed to get you past the fiercest gatekeepers in Hollywood: the Hollywood script readers. This small army of freelancers will be among the first to read and evaluate your script and then to recommend it -- or not -- to the studios, directors, and stars.

Designed for quick and easy access, these 500 points are a step-by-step recipe. They cannot guarantee success, but failure to follow them can almost certainly guarantee failure. Tips include:

* Get your foot in the door: 23 ways to make a good first impression on the Hollywood Reader

* Screen talk: why it is essential to write dialogue that looks good on the page

* Your goals in each act: how to make your story unputdownable from beginning to end

* Specific genre issues: writing a romance? a mystery? a thriller? Learn their special requirements and pitfalls

* The final scenes: how to go out with a bang that will wow the Hollywood Reader

* Still didn't get positive coverage? Inside info on what to do and how to do it

Written by an industry insider who has recommended scripts that have sold for as much as one million dollars, this is the only book to show you what the Hollywood Reader wants to see. Clear, smart, and completely authoritative, 500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader is by far the simplest, most practical book ever to hit the entertainment shelf.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

So you want to write a movie! You could consult Robert McKee's influential Story, Syd Field's rather schematic Screenplay, which extrapolates lessons from famous films, or novelist-turned-screenwriter Meg Wolitzer's literate Fitzgerald Did It, inspired by her own experience.

But the script you pour your soul into won't be read by a single soul you've ever heard of. If a star or mogul reads anything about your story, it will be in the form of "coverage," a brief report reducing your screenplay to a one-sentence summary, with a very few pages of synopsis and ratings of your characters, dialogue, and plot. That report is written by a Hollywood reader, who is likely to be a smart woman desperate to find something she can recommend to her boss--someone like Jennifer Lerch. If her eyes glaze over, you're dead.

Your eyes won't glaze over reading Lerch's 500 brisk mini-lessons. How many pages can you turn in? Not over 120. How crucial are the first 30 pages? Utterly. How many big, climactic moments do you need in those 30 pages? Two. How many scenes do you need in the dramatic opening sequence? Three to five. How many parenthetical comments directly addressed to the reader can you include? One or two per script. How about your favorite passages, where you plumb your characters' inner depths? Throw them away: "If the character doesn't say it, wear it, or do it, delete it." How do pros write? "Staccato. Economical." That's how Lerch writes. And if you want to get anywhere in Hollywood, you'll have to please someone just like her. Know your enemy--and make her your best friend. --Tim Appelo

About the Author

Jennifer Lerch has been a Hollywood Reader for more than a decade, including eight years at the William Morris Agency. She lives in Los Angeles.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books; Original edition (July 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684856409
• ISBN-13: 978-0684856407
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #715,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Keep this one within easy reach, November 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: 500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader: Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend (Paperback)

I happened upon this book the other day and it caught my eye because, as a reader for a major Hollywood agency, I get annoyed seeing too many writers making the same mistakes over and over. Many of the screenwriting manuals out there (and I've read a lot of them) are either too patronizing or simply too unrealistic in their approach, but "500 Ways" is a refreshing, no-nonsense guide that offers succinct, practical advice, especially for those writers who are still trying to get their nascent careers going. And since even more experienced authors often fall into the same traps, why not have an easy reference book that gives you the basics? After all, you've gotta write "I Want To Hold Your Hand" before you can make "Abbey Road," so get this book, read it carefully, keep it within easy reach, refer back to it from time to time, rest assured that you've got your screenwriting foundations in order, and THEN go write your masterpiece. Is it a cure-all for an ailing script? No, but none of the screenwriting books on the market are. If anything, it's a great writing supplement that, at the very least, will help you avoid some of the more obvious land mines that readers like us are just waiting for you to step on. Remember, you've gotta get past the likes of Ms. Lerch before you can get to an agent - and as a Hollywood reader myself, I can *guarantee* it's not as easy as you think.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Information Made Simple, November 24, 1999

By 

Jordan, Los Angeles, CA - See all my reviews

This review is from: 500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader: Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend (Paperback)

As a story editor for a major production company in Hollywood, I would recommend this book highly to budding screenwriters. Ms. Lerch has encapsulated over ten years of experience into under 200 easy-to-understand pages, that impart VERY PRACTICAL advice on getting a reader's recommendation. After reading "500 Ways" you will know to avoid the common mistakes that prejudice a reader before page 10. More advanced writers will still find it a helpful reminder on how to keep each page fresh and engaging. I have not seen any other book that so focusses it's attention on how your script will be read - and judged - at this first critical step on it's ambitious pilgrimage toward the screen.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Refreshingly realistic, admits an script/play reader, December 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: 500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader: Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend (Paperback)

This shouldn't be the first, or even the third, book you buy on screenwriting--there are better ones on the storytelling craft--but, as someone who's read scripts, I have to admit some of the author's points on packaging, for want of a better word, are on-target--particularly when she stresses how crucial the first pages and the length of the script are. Most scripts are much too long, far too similar, and don't move fast and with a momentum that grabs that reader's attention. A script the author may have slaved for months over often just becomes the one on the top of the pile to a beleagured and bored script reader, so a writer confident enough to just get to the point and get to the story has a huge advantage. Screenwriting is far from as cut-and-dried or formulaic as this book's author makes it sound, and there's a couple of 100 of the 500 points that are just common sense, but her snappy advice is a refreshing change, or addition, to the host of more studious tomes on the topic.