The golden rule of screenwriting is to never bore your audience. Ever. The golden rules of scenes in your screenplay are that they must either advance plot or reveal character – ideally both. So, why are there so many boring scenes in many screenplays you read? Many are just page fillers which will never excite your reader.

Here are some reasons why some scenes might crash and burn and leave you feeling less than excited:

1) Too Artsy

Look at me! I’m a screenwriting auteur and my scenes are a stroke of cinematic genius! And that dialogue… Yes, we get it. You want to push those screenwriting boundaries and win an award. But there are limits to how inventive you can be before the audience tunes out. They do so because those artsy scenes become more about the writer’s ego than entertaining their audience. There is nothing wrong with being inventive, even daring, but respect your audience. Don’t grandstand yourself. That’s the audience’s job. If you choose to push your creative boundaries, such as in the mind-bending Every Everywhere All At Once, directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert kept their multiverse adventure emotionally-grounded in light of the outlandish nature of their film.

Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Photo courtesy of A24

2) Too Derivative

One of the more common reasons that screenplays are rejected is that the same story has been told in a better way. It’s one thing to honor those who’ve influenced you, but it’s not your job to copy their material with minor revisions and call it “your take.” If two stories are too similar, think about putting your personal stamp on it. Granted, every story has already been told at least once, so it’s extremely difficult to be completely original. Think of your take on the heist movie, the romcom, or CIA agent.

Same, but different. But not too same and not too different.

Genre films contain character and plot tropes that audiences expect. A heist film typically contains a mastermind, a crew, and a target. The narrative covers the decision, the planning, the assembly of participants, and the execution. It’s difficult to write a heist film without these components. Your job is to avoid repetition. Everyone is looking for, “I’ve never seen that done this way before.” Write it on a post-it and stick it somewhere handy.

Kaleidoscope did a formidable job of this by executing the story in non-linear fashion by assigning each of the eight episodes a specific color and a time point surrounding the heist. Statistically, that’s over five thousand ways to experience the story. Inventive? You also saw glimpses of your favorite directors in there too.

3) Too Reductive

If you’re tackling meaty subjects such as abusive relationships, sudden death, addiction, or trauma, do them justice by doing as much research as you can. Don’t minimize it. A lack of knowledge of any serious matter is insulting not only to yourself as a writer, but also to those who’ve experienced it. Failure to appreciate the subject you write about will brand you as an amateur.

Cast of Silicon Valley. Photo courtesy of HBO

Imagine if you’re writing a TV series set in a start up. Let’s call it Silicon Valley. During your research capture the mood, speed, vision, ego and limitless nature of building a technology company from scratch. You may even want to familiarize yourself with terms like beta testing, bugs or rollout.

4) Too Repetitive

No scene should deliver the same information more than once. That is, of course, unless you need to reinforce a point previously made, such as the discovery of a vital clue that solves a crime. The cardinal sin of screenplay scenes is repetition without addition to the story. It hamstrings the story and irritates your reader by interrupting the flow.

Let’s say a master criminal wants to exact revenge on a business partner that screwed him decades prior. The aggrieved criminal should only have a big showdown scene at a bar with his former partner ONCE where the gloves come off and he/ she declares that they will take back what’s rightfully there’s. Don’t repeat this scene at a PTA meeting or at a sporting event.

5) Too Vague

Another common issue is that screenwriters are too vague – descriptions, scene headings, or character descriptions. A reader needs just enough information to get a sense of time, place, and character. Simply saying a detective or a hotel won’t cut it. But an unshaven detective in a dimly lit hotel room pounding away on their laptop held together with duct tape paints a specific image.

The antithesis of scenes being too vague, is that may be too specific without enhancing your story. Having a measured degree of specificity will elevate the images a reader will build from your page, but too much may be a distraction. It will unnecessarily yank your reader out of the story if they need to look up some specific cultural reference or wonder why it’s there. Think about what the said detective might typically be eating – pizza, burger and fries. Big cup of soda. What if they’re eating oysters or wagyu beef? Or gluten-free glass noodles? How does this impact the reader’s perception of the character?

It all comes down to balance, purpose, and intention. Writing a scene where the detective is just finishing dinner won’t create the same impact as specifying what they’re eating.

6) Too Much Talking

Too much dialogue and too much exposition is a problem particularly in many lower budget films in an effort to minimize production costs with extended talking head scenes. It’s exhaustive. Audiences may not track every single word uttered by your characters. They have inbuilt filters to summarize the key points and reduce the noise. We get it. One character is not getting the inheritance and they spend forever complaining to try to change the executor’s mind. Less can be more.

Let’s reimagine this common reading of the reading of the will scene. Make it surprising; unexpected. Imagine if the executor reads the last will and testimony and the character who thought they were about to inherit everything, only inherits the family hamster. They nod politely and say, “I love hamsters.” The audience knows how loaded this statement is because the character’s future was predicated on inheriting millions not just a furry friend. It has a higher impact because the audience questions the sedate response when the character should be arguing to get what they believe is rightfully theirs.

7) Too Much Of One Character

Screenplay scenes should be about multiple characters even if there is only one character in them. Even if a character is acting  in solitude, their actions are generally designed to affect others. Scenes should always have a focal point on one character, their goals and their obstacles to act as an anchor for the audience. The following scene should focus on another character’s point of view. The key word here is “focus.” A character spouting their thoughts in a vacuum with little consequence on the story is boring.

Character focus in any given scene is a game of chess. The writer needs to consider all the pieces to play the game, but only moves one piece at a time. This comes down to one character being too active and the others being too passive. Give your passive characters a response to the active character’s perspective. This makes your scene a team sport with a central focus. Simply nodding in agreement (or disagreement) won’t make your scene soar or your reader want to turn the page. Nobody likes the guest talking ninety percent of the time at a dinner party, oblivious to those around him.

8) Too Much Too Soon

Or too little not soon enough. This refers to the natural rhythm and pacing of your story. Consider the ephemeral romantic comedic where a fated couple meet under adverse circumstances. They’re both booked for the same AirBnB for a conference and there’s nowhere else to stay. Spend time letting your characters stew in their progression of emotions. Let them work through the shock, the anger, and frustration. How could AirBnB be so careless? Both characters confirmed their booking the day before. It’s late and there aren’t any other rooms.

We know this is a romcom so things will turn out fine for them in the end. But don’t rush to cross the finish line. Think about the timeline. If the double booking is resolved in the first ten minutes, you don’t have a movie. If it’s not resolved until the eighty minute mark, you don’t have a romance. Trains have schedules for a reason. They must chug along at a certain speed to arrive at each station on time.

Back to our romcom, tentatively titled AirBnB Romance, we decide that our couple are forced to spend the night in the same room. There is only one bed and they really don’t like each other. After the initial angry phone calls to AirBnB, they must accept their fates and make the best of a bad situation.

Maybe they can split the cost of the room? Sleep head to toe with a pillow wall between them? This unlocks a Pandora’s box of Possibilities. One catches the other in the shower later. Yikes! Awkward. Then there’s the embarrassment, the avoidance to discuss the issue, and the initial chemistry as they bond. Don’t deny your audience these precious moments by bombarding them with too much story too soon or not enough. Invite your audience into to your story and allow them to process each scene step by step. You don’t want to go to a restaurant where they serve all five courses at once.