TRIM Your Action Lines Video
Your 1st 3 pages are like a 1st date. So...Don't Write Your 1st 3 Pages Until You Do These 3 Things
Today, we dive into PART I: TRIM, focusing on how to captivate literary managers, agents, and executives, ensuring they read your script from start to finish.
Welcome back to "Don't Write Your First Three Pages Until You Do These Three Things.”
I'm Kelly Keough, and we're about to get started on a journey to enhance your screenwriting prowess.
Stick around for all the videos in this. The last video puts all the lessons to the test. I’ll apply all of my Story Waves lessons to my opening pages. You be the judge.
In this video, we'll explore common reasons scripts lose their readers within the first three pages. We'll apply the lessons from Story Waves, covering the first three pivotal lessons, all of which are detailed further in my SUBSTACK articles.
What’s in store…
Why literary managers, agents, and execs stop reading scripts
Story Waves Lessons 1: The Story Starts on Page 1
Story Waves Lesson 2: Write the Last Page First
Story Waves Lesson 3: All Stories Have Four Actions
TRIM Technique to slice your first three pages down to two
TRIM ACTION LINES
Our first lesson, TRIM, emphasizes the importance of starting your story from page one, an essential tip for crafting compelling openings.
We’ll discuss the strategy of writing your last page first, a technique that fosters a strong narrative drive by connecting the end of your story back to its beginning, using theme to amplify your writing's potential.
Lastly, we'll examine the four fundamental actions present in all stories—win, escape, stop, retrieve—and their significance within your script's first three pages.
Why lit managers, agents, and execs stop reading
Let's delve into the reasons someone might stop reading your script before even reaching page three. It could be due to confusion, lack of action, or simply because it's boring.
Typos, excessive white space, or too much text can also deter readers, especially literary managers who are inundated with scripts. Achieving a perfect balance in your first three pages is crucial.
The TRIM technique aims to refine these pages, making them clear, engaging, literary, persuasive, and succinct.
Story Waves #1: The story starts on page one
Story Waves lesson #1 underscores the story's initiation on page one, advocating for a compelling start that sets the tone and introduces key elements of your narrative effectively.
As an example, Charles Dickens masterfully sets up his entire novel "A Christmas Carol" with the opening sentence, demonstrating the power of concise storytelling.
Story Waves #2: Write the last page first
Story Waves lesson #1 shows the concept of writing the last page first to help envision the narrative arc, ensuring your story's opening and conclusion mirror each other, enhancing the thematic and character transformation.
This approach is exemplified in the 2023 Barbie movie, where the narrative bookends are cleverly connected through dialogue, illustrating thematic progression.
Story Waves #3: All stories have four actions
Story Waves lesson #3 highlights the necessity of incorporating a dominant action that propels your story forward, as seen in THE LOST CITY (2022) where the theme of escape is established early on and humorously tied to the protagonist's journey.
After embedding these elements, the next step is to apply the TRIM technique to your first three pages, aiming to condense them down to two. This involves eliminating unnecessary action lines, repetitive descriptions, and anything that doesn't contribute to setting up your genre or themes.
As we conclude this part, remember that the goal is to trim your action lines effectively, enhancing the clarity and impact of your script's opening. Stay tuned for the next video, where we'll discuss what to cut in dialogue. Until then, focus on refining your action lines, and see you in the next session.
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I look forward to reading your stories and connecting in 2024!
Best wishes,
Kelly E. Keough