The habits of screenplays that work

A screenplay is a technical document: it works only if the director, the producer and the actors can see the film as they read it. Structure is the order of delivery: what the audience learns, when, and at what cost to the character.

Whatever the template, effective screenplays share the same habits: a character with a specific want, an obstacle, decisions that cannot be taken back, feelings written as visible action, scenes that start late and end early, and pages that each earn their screen time and their budget.