Hello, my splendidly supportive citizens of Stage 32.
So, I thought I'd bring up something that I've gradually come to notice among the screenwriters online - and I don't just mean among Stage 32, I mean every screenwriting community I've crossed.
Of all the public table reads I've sat in on, and all the public script reviews I've read, and all the discord coverages shared, I picked up on a pattern of which readers often misread, or misinterpret, or miscomprehend what they read. One reader during a table read, no joke, asked how they had medical drugs available in Medieval times for King Henry IV.
Now, I know good screenwriters take page aesthetics into account to help modern readers follow along without their minds wandering off page by maintaining plenty of white space and precise paragraphs and such. But my presupposition is that many readers may still have a difficult time with basic reading comprehension alone.
I'd recommend self-evaluating your own reading level with a Free Online Reading Comprehension Test before adding any input into others' works. Self-betterment is the goal.
https://www.aptitude-test.com/free-aptitude-test/reading-comprehension/
Welcome! Resource for learning about learning styles The Way they Learn by Cynthia Tobias
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Yes, I have had feedback a couple of times, where the reader had missed fairly obvious and important points.
It can be tricky. On the one hand, you obviously want the reader to grasp the story and characters easily. On the other, you want to maintain a certain voice/tone. So in rewriting, I try to hit it somewhere down the middle.
The most useful feedback, in this regard, is when someone has read carefully enough to follow the story, but can give you specific points on where and why that was a challenge.
As for the test, it is riddled with grammatical errors, which is rather distracting.
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Instead of requesting that readers take a comprehension test, I feel that you should probably reevaluate the exposition of your writing to ensure that the audience is aware that there is a factual basis for the use of the drugs in question. Depending upon what drugs you're talking about, I believe that many people would question their use back in the days of yore, and the reader is simply pointing out that minor flaw in the script. Especially a reader at a table read. They are there more for your benefit than theirs and they're simply attempting to help you make your work better. As for being consistently misread, misinterpreted, or miscomprehended, that's on you. Your responsibility as a writer is to write clearly and concisely so that your audience can easily comprehend. Like you said, "Self-betterment is the goal."
First off: I didn't specify that it was my writing people had trouble comprehending. I do peer Script Coverages and Table Reads alongside other reviewers. Having peer-reviewed dozens of others' scripts, often times my fellow readers will misread things, or infer things that aren't on the page, or need clarification in hindsight. And on well-written scripts too.
Second: The example I gave: King Henry IV - as in, King Henry the 4th, went over your head too. Not an intravenous IV, but the Roman numerals.
I would suggest you try and improve your reading comprehension, JamesDean Brown.
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Real world readers are not taking any tests that the writer gives them.
Sure, they make mistakes now and then. Everybody does.
But if they have a lot of problems with one script and few with another script? if one script creates images in their mind and another is a chore to read? if one script is a suspense filled page turner and another is a slog?
That's not the reader's fault.
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I promise this is true. My brother was at a closing blockbuster and took an ex-rental copy of HenryIV to the counter and asked if it was okay (referring to scratches etc). The clerk said “it must be they made four others”.
I believe it is the job of the writer to communicate to the audience. Not the audience’s responsibility to understand the writer.
If I don’t get “my message” across it is “my fault”.
Secondly. If I leave my success in someone else’s hands I have no control over the outcome. If the average person is getting dumb, which I think is your belief. You will need to change your style. You’ll have more luck changing yourself than 9 billion other people.
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Not all readers are born equal and it's perfectly reasonable to want a high standard. Sadly, many are picked up for cheap/free and pushed too hard.
I once had a Black List evaluation where the reader kept referring to the futuristic weaponry in my script. It was an M2 Browning, invented in 1933.
I fully understood, "Medieval times for King Henry IV," so there wasn't any confusion there. You may have misunderstood or misinterpreted my point. Most readers out there, especially peer-review readers, are lending you a helping hand to identify potential problems with your script so that if you feel inclined to improve it, you can. Sure, I get it if the reader misunderstood by thinking that King Henry IV was an abbreviation for King Henry Intravenous, but you didn't clarify the problem with this post. (I had to assume that you were treating King Henry with some penicillin or ibuprofen which clearly didn't make any sense.) Clarity is King and conciseness is Queen.
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there are readers and there are readers at prod comp, agencies, legit businesses making movies. Choose the latter. However as a former reader, there is 0 training for this job but the more stacks you read, your judgement gets better. It is one explanation why many executives become script experts by reading 1000s of scripts per year.
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Yeah CJ, old Ma Duce packs a pretty good wallop. Readers vary widely in skillsets for sure. It's only my observation but it appears to me that at present, very few have the necessary knowledge that comes from experience (us old guys have both). I could go on & on about the lack of knowledge, willingness to learn, talent exhibited by today's young. Then I'd start to sound like my grandfather who used to say to me "your generation is on it's way to hell in a handbasket". Ya know, I think he was right. And you want a high standard in script readers.