I"m new to this forum and love the threads! Here's my challenge. I wrote a pilot comedy script. I had a writing coach who helped me develop the story arcs and plot development. I have the script to a point that I think is good. I have had a few people read it. The problem is they have very different opinions. I feel I'm in a pinball machine getting batted around. Some of the comments are definitely helpful. Some are like 'What are you talking about'? I had someone to script coverage and a few suggestions just don't feel right. How do you guys handle this (if you've enountered it)? I watched the Pilot of 'Big Bang Theory' and did the writer's thing of turning on closed caption so I could just follow the dialog. Obviously Big Bang was a successful show but the Pilot did a few things we are told not to do, like just having characters talking and not having them do something. The other issue was protagonist/antagonist. The first episode was a group of socially awkward scientists meeting the hot chick and behaving foolishly. Maybe I'm just missing something. I just didn't see the classical elements of a story. I guess Sheldon is the antagonist? As for character development Raj didn't say anything. The Pilot of Silicon Valley was more clear in terms of typical story, character development, stakes, etc. I'm a bit confused and frustrated because i keep hearing very specific things about a script but I am not seeing it consistently applied. Anyone else experiencing this?
Yeah critics aren't infallible. I think it's best not to listen to just one person--try to get a few opinions, and if they overlap at all then you have something. And if something works then it works--rules aren't infallible either. The trick is to figure out why it works. I love your username by the way.
Thanks Friedrich. I'm going to have one more person do script coverage, see if there is some agreement and then go from there. Writing a pilot is tricky. So much needs to be done in terms of plot and character development in a 30 minute show. Writing is a roller coaster ride!
That's a Critic not God. They are not right they're probably not even close. If two of them point out the same problem it's probably a problem. If not let it slide off your very thick skin.
In the opening and closing of every critique I give, I like to address this very question with a simple line that goes something along the lines of this: "While I hope that my comments and suggestions are useful to you, please always remember that your story is yours and yours alone; if a comment or suggestion I make doesn't quite match your vision, feel free to disregard it!" Regardless of what commenters or critique-writers may think about your writing, they aren't the ones holding the proverbial (or literal) pen, after all Take what you can use from your critiques, and leave what you can't! (case in point: I once wrote a fantasy story that a critique writer insisted was about aliens and Area 51. It was not.)
That's great! Thanks. I feel better now that I have slept on the critique. The person who did my recent script coverage was trying to re-write my ending, but in a way that made no logical sense. I guess it really does go back to taking notes on what can help improve the script and discard that which doesn't. I'd read that a writer needs to build up a callous to criticism. It's good and helpful and can also be distracting and deflating. Glad I found this forum!
Everyone has their own opinions. There's no need for a consensus. Decide which, if any, of the critiques are justified and incorporate them, if you want to. Try to please everyone and you'll end up pleasing no one.
Critiques or reviews will have differing opinions. All will be right . You don't need to please everybody, I think Harry Potter is puerile and would not waste my time reading it . J K Rowling doesn't worry too much about my opinions . A consensus is a general agreement. If , when Harry Potter was first published, most pople reading it believe as I do . The world would be a different place and Joanne Rowling might still be a secretary dreaming of fame and fortune.
Good point More. After reading the responses to my original post, just want to say thanks to everyone.
I've done a lot of script assessment and the opposite, having my scripts assessed. The best way forward is to first look for consistent commentary. If everyone says character A is boring, or doesn't work, you have a problem. But your point is a lack of consensus. For this, use your own judgement to determine which criticism makes sense to you and needs correction, and which you disagree with. Often we need people to point out things we will then ourselves realize needs to be fixed. Sometimes they make valuable criticism that you may decide isn't in line with your vision and can be respectfully passed on. Other times they have no idea what the hell they're talking about. Critics are simply giving you their opinion, and it happens at every level. Also note that The Big Bang Theory was created by a well established successful TV show creator, Chuck Lorre, so the pilot was probably just a formality in signing off on a season rather than a typical proof of concept. I had readers for Sony say that my male characters were great and interesting but my female characters were shallow and simplistic, and then Screen Australia tell me on the same draft that my female characters were great and well fleshed out but my male characters were simple and cliché. (I also had a very prominent Australian director stop halfway in the script, rant at me for a whole page about how it was shit and I was wasting his time, while a very successful producer read the whole thing through out aloud to his wife and they both loved it.) If it makes sense, listen. If it doesn't, ignore or keep it in mind in case others say the same thing.
Critique is basically just advice. It may be good and informed advice from people who know what they're talking about, or it may bad or at least very generalized and misunderstood advice from people who are just repeating something they were told or read at some point and then took for granted. You've got to exercise judgment, is the thing. Does the advice make sense to you? You're supposed to actually think about it. Storytelling isn't a hard science were following certain strict principles guarantees the optimal outcome. It's an artform, a lot of it is purely intuitive, and ultimately it's the result that matters rather than whatever methods you used to achieve it.
Thanks, Fervidor. I just had someone do an assessment and it didn't match at all with the previous critique so my takeaway is to listen more to y'all and less to these one-off reviewers
I would suggest you listen to all the critiques you receive and decide which ones you agree with, which ones you think will make the most impact on the story and which ones you want to implement. You can implement zero or more of the recommendations made - it's your writing, not theirs.
