The majority of screenplays circulating Hollywood are … eh … alright. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read a screenplay or television pilot and thought, “if only they had …” – don’t get me wrong, to accomplish a screenplay is a great feat, but to allow things to sag in order to submit your screenplay to an agent or production is simply a waste of the accomplishment and opportunity.

1. Trim the Fat of the Scene – Don’t forget that Middle Area this time!

This advice is always thrown around lightly. While trimming the beginning and end of each scene will definitely hone your scene down to its core and keep the read tight, it completely ignores what really matters about the scene – the middle!

Yes, trim that awkward beginning and meandering ending of the scene, but don’t ignore the middle. What’s your scene truly about? Why are we seeing the scene? Trim the fat from this section and you’ll have a story ready to be read. No matter how tight your scene opening is or how sharp your ending, if a scene is fat in the middle, your reader will lose interest.

2.  It’s All About Being Visual, Remember?

This probably comes as a curve ball, but you screenplay should be visually pleasing to the eye. You’ve probably learned not to draw to much attention to your script, which I agree, but I also want to highlight the fact that as screenwriters, you’re dreams are to work in the industry of illusion … so give your reader the illusion that your screenplay is plain and simple.

There are certain elements that are required in every screenplay, such as type face and text size, but that’s not to say you can’t arrange the elements on the page in a clever way. What I’m getting at is that you should consider your title page, and every other page for that matter, a work of graphic design. Take a lesson from Apple Computers and create a clean, crisp design for your title page. As a reader, I’ll tell you that I like the simplicity a plain screenplay title page presents, but some of the best material I’ve considered explored an alternative visual look than courier new had to offer. If you do explore the art of creating the illusion of plain and simple for your screenplay title page, please do me a favor and use any other font than Times New Roman – it simply screams “I’m a legal document!”

3.  Spell Check it!

We all make spelling mistakes, so readers will understand if they catch one or two … but it is your job as a writer to be the best writer in the room. Spelling errors can bring a writer’s credibility down to zilch. If nothing else, it’s your job to keep them at a minimum. For more about this, homophones, and grammar, discover 5 Polishing Points to Check Before Submitting Your Screenplay

4. Where’s the Conflict Again?

This is probably the single most important thing in a screenplay – without it, your story is boring. Go through each scene and make sure the scene not only moves the story forward and we learn something about the characters, but that there’s conflict involved. It doesn’t have to be “Join me and together we’ll rule the galaxy,” type of conflict – just something relevant, interesting, and emotionally engaging. As Syd Field so famously put it: “Without conflict you have no drama; and without drama you have no story; and without story you aint got no screenplay.”

5. “Life is like a box of chocolates,” so why should readers know what they’re gonna’ get?

Most screenwriters know that their work is the first step of many to getting a movie made, and that there are a lot of development, both technical and creative, that alter and add on to the screenplay. Does that mean you have to keep it clean of any quotable dialog?

Get creative, explore new ground, push the boundaries, and express yourself and your story through dialog you think might reach great heights. This isn’t to say try to get one of your lines in a movie quotes book, but rather, write exciting dialog and try to create something memorable.

6. Prepare to Dive!

Good dialog is easy to spot and it gets the job done. Great dialog goes beyond the surface with exceptional sub-textual play. As a writer, you of all people should be playing with communication as a craft and art – play with what’s being said in the sub-text!

7 . Be Creative

It might seem like a surprise, but the lack of creativity is one of the most common let downs experienced with spec screenplays. Buckle down and break new ground already. Do what no one else wants to do. Do what no one else can do. Take your audience places they’ve never been before. You do this and you’ll earn yourself some recognition as a creative storyteller – fail to do so, and you’re like everyone else just trying to do what everyone else does. It’s not about what works – it’s about what can work in a new way.

Check out 10 Ways to Impress a Script Reader for more on improving your screenplay.