Screenwriting Advice
Writing the First Ten Pages
The first ten pages of your screenplay are the most important. Here's how to make them count.
The first ten pages of your screenplay are the most important pages you will ever write.
Why the First Ten Pages Matter
When a reader picks up your script — whether it's an agent, a manager, a producer, or a BlueCat reader — they will know within the first ten pages whether they want to keep reading. This isn't a judgment on your talent. It's the reality of how screenplays are evaluated.
The first ten pages must accomplish three things:
- Establish the world. Where are we? What does this world feel like? What are its rules?
- Introduce a compelling character. Not a perfect character — a specific one. Someone whose voice and choices make us lean in.
- Create a question. The reader needs a reason to turn to page eleven.
The Most Common Mistake
The most common mistake in opening pages is throat-clearing. Writers who spend pages setting up backstory, describing locations in meticulous detail, or introducing characters through exposition rather than action.
Your screenplay is not a novel. We don't need to know everything about your protagonist's childhood before the story begins. We need to see them do something that reveals who they are.
"Show me a character making a choice under pressure, and I'll tell you everything about who they are." — Gordy Hoffman
A Practical Exercise
Take your current screenplay. Read only the first ten pages. Then ask yourself:
- If I were a stranger, would I want to read page eleven?
- Can I describe my protagonist in one sentence based only on what they do in these pages?
- Is there a question — a tension, a mystery, a want — that pulls the reader forward?
If the answer to any of these is no, rewrite your first ten pages before you touch anything else in the script.
The rest of your screenplay depends on it.