#first act

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Week 4: First Act

You have made it to the script-writing phase! Congrats to everyone who’s made it this far! Now you get to see all your outlining and development pay off. These last few weeks are going to be more intense, as you’ll be writing approximately 30 pages a week until the end of the challenge.

This week, you will be writing all of Act One - approximately ¼ of your script. For a 120-page feature, this is roughly 30 pages. While you have planned extensively for this moment, I just want to reiterate some points regarding the first act. All of your major characters, your conflict, antagonist (if there is one), and your character’s goal should be established within these first few pages.

Some things to remember when writing your first draft:

Do not procrastinate. 30 pages is a lot and trying to write at the last minute is stressful and hinders creativity. Set aside time every day to knock out a few pages.
Use your outline and treatment for guidance. If you get stuck, it’s a good way to remember the goal of each scene is to move the story toward your main plot points you outlined. For this week, you should hit your inciting incident around page 15 and your first act turning point around page 30.
Use proper screenplay format. There is free and paid software available that I have linked to below. You can format it manually, but it’s more difficult.
Break up action description into chunks no bigger than 3 sentences long. Blocks of text are harder to read in scripts and generally make it too dense.
This is a first draft. All it has to do is exist. Don’t get too hung up on finding exactly the right snappy line or the perfect action description.
Scan the draft for grammar and spelling mistakes before submitting it. It is best practice and will make your script more professional and easy to read

In addition to writing a draft, you will be sharing your script. By the end of the challenge, send at least 1 act to two people to receive feedback on what works and what needs to be improved. A piece of advice I was given that I always found helpful, is to send your script to your most honest friend, and your most professional friend.

You can get great feedback in our screenwriting workshop on discord! I will also be giving feedback as usual, but I do not count toward the two outside readers. The reason is so you can get opinions other than my own and to help you get comfortable sharing your work.

No script is ever perfect and a lot of times writers overlook mistakes because they already know the story inside and out. If something doesn’t make sense to an outsider, something probably got lost in translation from your mind to the page. (That being said, you don’t have to make all the changes recommended to you if you truly believe the critique to be incorrect.)

By next week, July 29, 11:59pm (PST), complete and submit the following:

For a short that is 15-30 pages, the first act would be a quarter of the total page count, roughly 4-7 pages.
If you are writing a pilot, the first act should be a quarter of the final page length. Dramas (44-60 pgs) would be around 11-15 pages and sitcoms (25-40 pgs) would be around 6-10 pages.

By Aug. 19th, 11:59pm (PST), complete and submit the following:

Send your script to at least 2 people and ask for feedback. I recommend sending your script to more than 2 people, in case people don’t respond.
Submit a marked up version of at least Act 1 as proof you got feedback. Those who got feedback from me do not need to send my markups. If you get feedback on discord, @me so I see it.

Resources for this week: