My Screenwriting Pet Peeves

Hey everyone, let's do screenwriting pet peeves!

As someone who analyzes scripts for a living, these are some fun (and annoying) things that drive me up the wall.

1.) A middle-aged character described as having “salt and pepper” hair. Biggest trope in all of screenwriting.

2.) The classic "over black, heavy breathing, shadowy figure, voice over" cold open. Legit half of scripts start this way.

3.) Large sounds denoted as a “cacophony of” whatever. Happens too much.

4.) When writers include a full sentence describing thoughts and emotions after every line of dialogue. “So-and-so rejects the inquiry and immediately wants to shift topics.” Just let the talking do the talking.

5.) When the character is just “old man” or “tall woman” for several pages because the audience wouldn’t technically know their name yet, but then they turn out to be our main character so they get a name 3 pages later. Just introduce your characters, please.

6.) Cold open that shows the future climax then jumps back to a boring beginning. It's a crutch.

7.) When our main character gets an early call from “mom” or “friend” and they ignore it. Wow, so intriguing.

8.) And finally, a young girl described as precocious. Pick another adjective. Please.

Remember, these aren't hard and fast rules. Just friendly pet peeves.

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