The Selling Script

Screenwriter Billy Mernit urges us to break some rules and make your story sell: "Making you turn the page is what a good spec script does, no matter the height of its writer's status. Your spec doesn't have to suck. But it helps to acknowledge that it is a sell. It's not a work of art, it's not a priceless pinnacle of writing perfection, it's a draft of a story that wants to be movie. And if letting go of some rules you were taught is what it takes, to get people to see the movie you see in your head... have at it, I say. You have nothing to fear but another rewrite.

The fundamental job of a selling screenplay is to get the reader to empathize with its protagonist.

Paraphrased for emphasis: The most important task a screenplay must accomplish is to get whoever is reading it to identify with the lead character. It's really that simple, although often tricky to pull off. If you can't get an executive, an actor, a whoever the hell is reading the thing to see the story through the eyes of its protagonist, to experience your story's emotions as they're experienced by the person in the starring role... then you are dead in the water."