Long time no see peeps. Curious to hear everyone's thoughts... I have received conflicting information, and have been reading through a lot of old and current scripts. Is it okay to use the word "And" in a screenplay when writing action lines?
I definitely avoid using "then." What about you guys?
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Seriously, of all the things I have looked for in scripts people send me, whether they use a certain word or not more than once or at all is not a consideration. Do you not find it odd to even worry about such a thing?
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I use both now and then.
Words in english serve a function. Avoiding them means that you have no use the function they do. If that is true, great.
If this is some rule, whoever told you is wrong. Give them my email address and I’ll tell them to their face.
These silly “rules” are pointless and do nothing to progress a writers skill. Which is the most important thing any feedback or advice should achieve.
Sorry for sounding insane. But really, not using particular words is a magic bullet?
“He sits Peter’s chest repeatedly punching the bloodied unconscious man. he then slowly pulls a revolvers from his back pocket and presses it into Peter’s forehead”.
Not a great piece of writing. You could rewrite it to remove both words. But would that suddenly make it great?
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It's certainly not a significant issue My writing style is pretty staccato so I don't often include conjunctions but then too, it sometimes eases readability - that's what it's all about - isn't it?
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"Rules" bursting out from everywhere...but as I always say - for every rule out there, you'll find produced script done exactly the opposite...guess it comes to only one then - get your script produced...that'll make you rule - maker...
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So far, I have received various feedback on my scripts, some of it critical. However, I seem to get high marks from everyone on readability and quality writing, which is nice.
When I started out on the first script, I had read up on formatting etc., but had not come across these nitty-gritty rules about not using 'we', 'and', 'then' etc. Rules like that seem to me counterproductive to good writing. Focus on flow, clarity and engaging the reader. That should take care of unnecessary words all by itself.