7 Ways to Keep a Reader's Interest

Screenwriters spend countless hours worrying about structure, formatting, theme, story, and so much more. Those elements matter. They always have and always will. But most scripts don’t fail because they break any guidelines or rules. Scripts fail because they don't engage the reader. 

If a script does manage to engage the reader early with an intriguing concept and opening, so many scripts eventually lose the reader as they read on deeper into the first act and beyond. 

And once a reader disengages, even the best third act twist can’t save the reading experience of your script. 

With that in mind, here we offer professionally proven easy and simple ways to keep a script reader’s interest, from the perspective of both a studio script reader and a pro screenwriter. 

Who Is Reading Your Scripts?

Before we delve into the subject of keeping the reader’s interest, let’s discuss who a script reader is, and what part they play in the discovery of your screenplay. 

Screenplay Contest and Fellowship Readers

It’s important to note that we are referring primarily to major screenwriting contests and fellowships with connections to the Film/TV/Streaming industry such as Final Draft’s Big Break. The people reading the initial screenplay submissions are usually former or current industry readers moonlighting as readers for contests and fellowships. Higher-up industry insiders are usually asked to read finalist scripts. If you’re entering contests that are more local, the people reading the scripts are likely local writers or writing group organizers - or maybe an industry insider with some local roots.  

Interns and Assistants

Interns and assistants work for aforementioned companies, primarily responsible for multiple (and sometimes mundane) tasks, one of which includes reading screenplays and writing coverage. They, along with pro script readers/story analysts, operate as the filtration service of the Film/TV/Streaming industry, sorting out the thousands of screenplays being submitted and read each year. 

Pro Script Reader

Professional Script Readers - also known as Story Analysts in the studio systems - are those employed by studios, networks, streamers, production companies, agencies, and management companies for the specific purpose of reading and evaluating screenplay submissions. Reading scripts and writing script coverage is generally their only job. 

Junior Executives

While the term may be somewhat dated, Junior Executives are assistants that have been promoted to a higher-level with additional responsibilities. To keep the explanation simple, they are usually the people in charge of getting coverage from script readers, assistants, and interns. If the latter are the lower tier of a company, junior executives are the next tier up. They’ll decide which scripts get to the higher tiers - i.e. the bosses. 

Development Executives and Producers

These are the top tier players within the industry (as well as Heads of Development, Heads of Production, and top agents and managers when it comes to representation companies). They are the decision-makers. They hold the keys to your screenwriting dreams of either selling your screenplays or the true bread and butter of pro screenwriters, getting hired for paid screenwriting assignments.

They Are All Script Readers

The point of this section is to make sure you know that all of these individuals are the script readers you need to keep the interest of in your screenplays. They are one and the same. It doesn’t matter what Hollywood tier - low, middle, or high - they represent. You need to keep their interest.

Now that you know who you’re writing for, here are some helpful practices to keep readers interested and invested in your script. 

1. Choose Your Concepts Wisely

It’s a concept-driven industry. The first and easiest way to capture and retain the interest of a reader is to have an amazing concept - something they haven’t seen or read before.

Sure, we’ve heard the old adage that everything has been done before. There’s truth to that. However, it’s less about what’s been done and more about how it’s been done.

You need to conjure and develop concepts that instantly sell the reader by the logline alone - this is the easiest and most proficient way to keep the reader’s interest. Why? Because all readers have an imagination. And all readers love movies. Great concepts that haven’t been done before trigger their imagination. They’ll want to experience this concept you’ve created. Their imagination will quickly create questions they’ll want answered - and to get those answers, they’ll have to read your script.

But the concepts have to be great. Your concept can stand out in many ways, including:

• Blending genres in a creative way.
• Handling otherwise routine concepts in different ways we haven’t seen. 
• Attaching compelling twists to familiar concepts we’ve seen before. 
• Taking two successful concepts and crashing them together to create something new and exciting. 

So, that’s the first and most powerful way to engage the reader and keep their interest - create and develop compelling concepts that can be sold via the logline alone. Learn how to write high concept scripts here. 

2. Hook Readers Within the First Few Pages

Sure, we’re talking about how to keep the reader’s interest. But how you start your script plays a vital role in keeping them invested.

Most experienced script readers can tell if a script is going to be good - or worthwhile - within the first few pages. Even beyond poor formatting and quality-of-writing issues. What you need to remember is that script readers are tasked with reading hundreds of screenplays each year - sometimes dozens upon dozens each week.

There’s no escaping this reality, so you might as well embrace the need to hook the readers within the first few pages.

How do you do that? Here are some proven options:

• Throw the protagonists into the conflict early on, and then let their backgrounds and depth come out as they deal with conflict at hand (watch John Carpenter’s The Thing).
• Open with a major event centered around the core conflict of your concept (big scare for horror, big action set piece for action flicks, major traumatic event for dramas, hilarious laugh for comedies, etc.) and then cut to a brief peek into your protagonist’s ordinary world, leaving the reader wondering how that major opening will involve this character.
• Open with the third act climax and then cut to the beginning of the story right at the cliffhanger moment of that climax, leaving the reader wondering how the protagonist is going to get into that predicament. 
• Open with a mystery (this even works for drama) that will leave the reader engaged.      

Hooking a reader isn’t just about getting them to read past the first few pages. It’s about introducing elements that will keep them interested throughout the whole script. Just make sure you deliver on any promises and potential. 

3. Avoid Slow Burns

Yes, we know that there are many, many amazing movies that are slow burns, as far as stories that slowly reveal concept/plot/story while focusing more on stylistic elements of tone, atmosphere, and enigmatic mystery. However, those usually come from either well-established screenwriters and filmmakers, or auteurs that are writing and directing their own stories.

We’re specifically talking about the spec market here - screenwriters looking to break into the industry with their spec scripts. Slow burns usually don’t make the cut. Keep those types of scripts in your back pocket. 

4. Utilize Plants and Payoffs Throughout Your Script  

You can accomplish this on the back-end of writing your script, as far as going back and peppering your script with plants and payoffs (visual, character, or story related) once you know where and how you’ve ended the script, or you can do this during your front-end work by development a beat sheet outline to work from as you write the script.

When you insert plants that are paid off throughout the whole script (not just at the end), it keeps the reader invested and makes for a more enthralling read. 

5. Raise the Stakes Every Few Pages

The best screenplays and movies keep us invested and engaged by continually introducing new and evolving conflicts within the core conflict of the script - these are the stakes being raised. When you keep raising the stakes within your script, you keep giving the reader something new every few pages.  

Here’s a bullet point analogy. We’ll start with a basic escalation of conflict.

1. A Protagonist is hiking in the wilderness.
2. An Antagonist starts to chase them.
3. The Protagonist climbs up a tree to escape them.
4. An Antagonist starts to cut down the tree. 
5. The Protagonist climbs downs and fights them, defeating the Antagonist. 

Now let’s add some additional stakes in a rewritten version. We’ll keep the additional and rising stakes in bold.

1. A Protagonist is hiking in the wilderness.
2. Someone hidden from their sight begins to stalk them.
3. The Protagonist hears strange noises.
4. The Protagonist sees someone watching them.  
5. An Antagonist appears and starts to chase them.
6. The Protagonist trips and twists their ankle. 
7. The Antagonist almost gets them but the Protagonist manages to escape and hide.
8. The Antagonist finds them.
9. The Protagonist runs and climbs up a tree to escape them.
10. The Antagonist starts to throw rocks at them while tormenting them.
11. The Protagonist shifts their position as branches break.
12. The Antagonist sets the tree on fire.
13. The Wind begins to grow stronger, forcing the tree to sway.
14. The Wind also feeds the fire more, making it grow faster. 
15. The Protagonist tries to climb lower, into the fire, to see if they can jump. It’s too high. They are forced to climb back up.
16. The Wind blows harder and harder. 
17. The Protagonist discovers a possible solution. The swaying tree sways closer and closer to another more stable tree. However, there’s a deep cavern in
18. between the two trees. If the Protagonist doesn’t make the tree, they’ll fall hundreds of feet to their death. 
19. The Protagonist decides to chance it, swaying the tree closer and closer over the deep cavern and towards the savior tree.  
20. The Antagonist sees what they are attempting and starts to cut down the tree.
21. On top of that, the trunk of the tree is beginning to split with each sway until…
22. The Protagonist sways the tree one last time and jumps for the other. They make it! They’re safe from the Antagonist with a deep cavern between them. 
23. However, the original tree snaps, falls, and shockingly creates a bridge for the Antagonist to the other side of the cavern.  
24. However, the tides have turned. Now the Protagonist starts throwing rocks at the Antagonist as the Antagonist tries to balance their way across. 
25. Suddenly, the fire the Antagonist set to the base of the tree becomes their undoing, as the tree gives way, sending the Antagonist into the depths of the cavern below. 

Continually changing, evolving, and growing conflict - the stakes of your script - is what will keep the reader engaged, invested, and compelled to read on. You can accomplish this in any genre.

Learn how to always raise the stakes in your screenplay here. 

6. Subvert Expectations

Most stories and genres come with pre-conceived expectations.

• We know the down-on-their-luck athlete will prevail. 
• We expect the hero to do good for all and save the day.

Readers, and audiences, have experienced nearly every type of story. Everyone knows and expects the cliches, tropes, conventions, and expectations with every type of story.

Because of this, readers get bored fairly quickly. They read so many scripts that everything seems to blend together. That’s when the eyes get heavy and their minds start to wander.

You can avoid this common trap by subverting expectations whenever you can. If a story would normally go down Path A, swerve left and take us down Path B. Or, better yet, drive us through the trees onto a different path we didn’t even see.

If you go into your writing process with the goal of subverting any and all expectations that you can, you’ll eventually write a story that may seem familiar at first sight, but becomes something new and fresh because of excellent choices you’ve made to subvert the expectations of the reader.   

7. Keep Everything Short, Sweet, and to the Point

This applies to everything in your script:

• Scene description
• Dialogue
• Scenes
• Set Pieces
• Acts

When you pare everything down to its core, you’re giving the reader the most cinematic experience possible. Screenplays aren’t novels. Readers aren’t looking for a novel-like reading experience.

They want to see and feel in moving images and quick audible cues when necessary. They want and need to see the movie unfolding. They can’t do that when you’re going on and on with scene descriptions, dialogue, and scenes that seem to go on forever. 

Follow These Basic Guidelines to Keep the Reader’s Interest

It’s fairly simple and easy to keep the reader’s interest. You just need to go into the writing process with that goal in mind. You don’t need profound storytelling, game-changing structure, and revolutionary character depth to accomplish this.

Instead:

• Write for the reader
• Choose your concepts wisely
• Hook readers early
• Avoid slow burn stories for now
• Utilize plants and payoffs (and twists)
• Raise the stakes every few pages
• Subvert expectations
• Keep everything short, sweet, and to the point

Have fun!