Lessons Learned from a Month of Reading Scripts
It’s pretty telling of how chronically online either I or my generation is that the concept of reading is considered a ‘challenge’, but in January 2026 I did exactly that. Over the course of 31 days, I read 30 complete scripts and plays.
Here’s what I learned.
Scripts Read
As a good academic boy, I should first begin with the list of all the scripts I’ve read. Why? Partially to brag, but also so you can understand exactly where I’m getting my assertions from.
Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare
The Substance - Coralie Fargeat
Daddy Issues (ep 01) - Danielle Ward
His Dark Materials (ep 01) - Jack Thorne
Blue Lights (ep 01) - Declan Lawn
Dunkirk - Christopher Nolan
Teenage Dick - Mike Lew
Sarah Jane Adventures (ep 01) - Gareth Roberts
Inside No 9 (ep 01) - Steve Pemberton & Reece Shearsmith
Hamnet - Chloe Zhao & Maggie O’Farrell
Alma’s Bot Normal (ep 01) - Sophie Willan
Quaint Honour - Roger Gellert
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Wes Anderson
Oopsie, missed this day
The Erpingham Camp - Joe Orton
The Chemsex Monologues - Patrick Cash
Death in Paradise (s6 ep01) - Kelly Jones
The Butter Street Hitchhiker - Chris Hicks
Challengers - Justin Kuritzkes
Daddy Issues (ep 02) - Daniele Ward
SCRIPT READ FOR FREELANCE WORK
28 Years Later - Alex Garland
Leonard and Hungry Paul (ep 01) - Richie Conroy & Mark Hodkinson
Andor: Welcome to the Rebellion - Dan Gilroy
Blue Moon - Robert Kaplow
Bacon - Sophie Swithinbank
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (s13 ep 08) - Danna Phirman & Danielle Schneider
Man in the High Castle (ep 01) - Frank Spotnitz
The Lady in the Van - Alan Bennett
Parks and Recreation (s3 ep 09) - Daniel J Goor
Sherlock (s1 ep 01) - Steven Moffat
The Literary Art of Scriptwriting
One of the oldest lessons learned in writing courses is to write ‘visually’, which to an 18/19 year old is something objective to hang on to as a marker of success. It’s also a message that is more corrosive than helpful. It creates a sense that a script is merely a list of images and dialogue, packaged and delivered to a director to make beautiful. Over the course of this month, I’ve learned that the script itself needs to be beautiful in and of itself.
That doesn’t mean all scripts need the visual intensity of The Substance, not at all. There are as many ways to make a script beautiful as there are stars in the universe. The way language is used in Hamnet evokes beautiful, emotional imagery in its directions, frequently referring to rather abstract emotions and vibes throughout. Andor: Welcome to the Rebellion is one of the most sweary scripts I’ve ever read. Characters that speak with eloquence and poise on the page appear to have a constant inner-monologue going “shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit” and it’s impossible to stop reading.
As an audience member, you’d likely think a group of ‘infected’ in 28 Years Later is known as a ‘hoard’, as is common parlance. No. Alex Garland uses a group of infected to thematic effect by calling them a ‘congregation’. This is the only place they’re called that, in the action line of a scene that eventually didn’t even make the final cut, but it’s POWERFUL.
All of these scripts are more than blueprints for a feature film. Of course they are.
How else is a writer going to get someone to produce their work?
It needs to read well. Scripts need to capture the reader in the same way the writer wants to capture the audience of the finished product.
So, in essence, the oldest rule of scriptwriting is bullshit. Students get so wrapped up in making sure a script reads visually that they lose the ability to write with emotion, with the sincere love of storytelling that made them start in the first place. Scripts become stale, action makes little-to-no sense as the reader is being forced to impose their own perspective onto a script that doesn’t have one because the writer is too scared to write something you ‘can’t point a camera at’.
Scriptwriting is a literary art just as valid as poetry and prose. To succeed, readers need to cry in the same place an audience member would. They should laugh at the jokes, and be able to imagine, in its entirety, what the script could become if produced.
Fluidity of Formatting
Another lesson taught in writing courses is the sacred art of the script format. I’ve even got an article on it on this blog! While it’s definitely recognisable and recommended to use, it’s also incredibly fluid.
Just taking the slug lines of screenplays, the detail included can vary massively from script to script. The Lady in the Van settles on the simple slug line denoting whether a scene is inside/outside, a vague setting, and whether it’s day or night. If you want more detail, you’ll have to read the scene (or talk to Alan, as even then it can sometimes not be clear). Alternatively, Parks and Recreation will give the interior/exterior, specific location/room, day/night/ or context of time to previous scene, and even number the day the scene takes place.
It doesn’t stop there, His Dark Materials contains enormous blocks of dense text, full of lore the audience is expected to grasp without research, while The Substance goes in for more of the traditional 3/4 line per action line rule. The Substance plays with this even further by having titles pulled out of the main text and highlighted across most of a page.
This fluidity shouldn’t have come as a shock, but it did. Plays haven’t had a standard format for centuries. Shakespeare, Joe Orton, and Patrick Cash scripts couldn’t look more different. There’s an interpretive quality to playwriting that frees up the formatting. Joe Orton is often quite prescriptive in his staging, dedicating a page before the script to guide productions in their realisation of his vision. Patrick Cash, however, couldn’t care less, jumping straight into actionless monologues, leaving all staging and choreography to the director and cast. And Shakespeare… well, who knows how he formatted his plays, they’ve been re-scribed in so many different ways it’s hard to tell what the original would have looked like.
Honestly, it’s just great to see that this liberal formatting is now breaking into screenwriting. The medium is over 100 years old and the form of screenwriting has remained pretty stagnant for a large portion of that time. On stage it’s called PLAYwriting. It’s time for screenwriters to rediscover the play in writing.
Heading Forwards
Honestly, I could keep writing forever about the things I’ve learned from reading these scripts. But, mostly, I’ve learned to be appreciative of this art form I’ve decided to pursue. I say decided, if I’ve learned anything it’s that writing is as innate as my sexuality or being left handed. It’s part of me. It’s where I’m happy, where I’m calm. Writing is my default.
It’s an utterly thankless job. How many of the above screenwriters had you heard of before reading this article? Probably the ones that also directed or have careers outside writing, but none of the others. I say, let them have their spotlight. Without writers, they’re nothing. Without writing, I’m nothing.
I’m so glad I took this month to re-teach myself what writing can be when you put not just your head, but your heart on the page.
