Read my screenplay!

There's no point in writing screenplays if no one ever reads them, apart from your mother. When starting out, the best place to find someone who will read your screenplay, and provide basic feedback, is within a local screenwriters' group. If you can't find one, start your own. The price you will pay is an obligation to read the other members' screenplays, and there will be times when that will seem like a high price.

It is extraordinarily difficult to write a great screenplay, yet most beginners think they'll toss one off over a couple of weekends, a month at the outside. Great screenplays are packed with subtle elements which are invisible to beginners, who are ignorant of almost everything that goes into structure, theme, and characterisation. That means their feedback is of limited value.

The way to obtain something of quality is to pay for it. There is a growing multitude of people offering to read screenplays in exchange for cold, hard cash. Their prices vary; the quality of their feedback varies even more. Most of them are a waste of time and money.

What you need is someone who has a track record within the film industry, someone whose experience, knowledge, and contacts are current. Use your commonsense: look for someone with experience in your particular genre. And, no, I'm not touting for your business. I don't qualify.

Here is a short list of people (in alphabetical order) in whom I have confidence. Contact one of them.

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FEEDBACK: Here's why I no longer do free notes on screenplays for strangers. Not in my words, but those of Josh Olson. And if that doesn't quite do it, you could try Gavin Polone's version of the same basic message.
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