Part five of a series of notes about notes

Giving Notes

I’m including this section before what to do when you get your notes for two reasons. 

First, when you’re starting out, if you’re in a writer’s group, as a student, or peer to peer, there’s a good chance you’re also going to be giving notes in return. 

The second reason is that it’s good to know how notes work when you’re asking for them. Different processes will provide different kinds of notes. Being clear about your objective for yourself will then mean you can get a sense of what the note-giver means. 

Try to read in one sitting

Even in the interrupted multi-screen world, we try to consume media as a continuous experience. At minimum, try to retain the same mindset for a broken read.

Balancing responding and reacting

You want to be in the moment and so note your immediate reactions to the script overall and to key plot moments. This is helpful for the writer as it is a test of ‘feel’. 

You also need to note the specifics – craft, character, plot, what’s confusing, what makes sense. 

Respond to what’s on – or not on – the page

As a reader, you are trying to be real time, first person. Does the writing enable that? Watch for things that can’t be filmed. 

How does that look to the audience? Is there adequate big print? Too much dialogue? Or the reverse?

Is there enough big print to ensure that internal character thoughts are made real through action or dialogue?

Don’t direct the script

A director will block the scene, choose the shots. If you’re reading the work of a writer/director, are they ensuring that there’s not too much direction on the page? Or that the things they will fix on set are actually in the script…

This is not your story

Respond to the story they are trying to tell, not the one you want to tell. 

Questions over story suggestions

“Would CHARACTER do this at this point?” is more helpful to a writer than ‘Whatabout if they…”

Nothing highlights this advice better than a 20+ year old comedy sketch by Mitchell and Webb. You can watch it here:

Coach, don’t tell.

“Have you considered…”

Don’t rewrite. 

Answer specific questions. If the writer has asked for specific information, make these a priority in the notes. 

Tell them how you feel

Is it moving? Exciting? Tragic? Funny? Be constructive, and talk to the writer’s voice.

Practical considerations

• Break feedback into sections and categories. 
• Mark up the document. Every PDF tool has a notes function, use it to highlight specific examples.
• Don’t rewrite. 
• Don’t take forever, and if there’s a delay, let them know. Writers open their chests when they send something for a read. They will refresh their inbox looking for that reply. Let them know when to expect it, and advise of any highlights. 

Receiving Notes

The note behind the note

Your script is yours (unless you’re a writer for hire, or under contract, or are already in development). 

What that means is whatever notes you get, you have two jobs.

• Work out what part of your intention wasn’t on the page.
• Work out whether your intention is helping the story or not.
• Work out how to solve the problems identified in the notes.

Look for the note behind the note. People are quick to suggest, using their context and their lens. The quickest way to get tangled as an early writer is to try to incorporate every note suggestion without having considered what the note is saying.

Opinions vary. If feedback from one reader is a surprise to you, get second and third opinions. And if they are consistent, what’s the underlying note behind the note. What’s not working. 

Don’t defend or argue the point. If someone has misinterpreted, misunderstood, taken a dislike to something – they are ‘right’. It means that you haven’t been able to universally convey your intention on the page. A script is a blueprint for many people to collaborate toward realising. Ambiguity is fine if you’re an artist, or a poet. As a screenwriter, your job is to lead the reader (and the production, and therefore the audience) to a consistent conclusion. If you are getting mixed feedback, look for the note behind the note. 

Everyone has a ‘whatabout’. (See the Mitchell and Webb scene above).

The three stages of receiving notes and why sitting with discomfort is the way.

“Fuck you, fuck me, what now…”

Lorien McKenna and Meg LeFauve on The Screenwriting Life use this shorthand to discuss the universal stages of getting notes. And so many of their guests, at all stages of their career, comment on how relatable this sequence is. 

Stage One. “Fuck you.” Being told something isn’t working the way you hoped sucks. Even if you know it. Particularly if you know it. This first stage is ego. It stings a little. It’s the wince from the injection, the conflagration of fear and rejection. It’s the part of the process that means we can tune out the constructive, reinforcing, useful comments and replace them in our head with ‘They hate it, this sucks’.

Stage Two. “Fuck me.” The slap that wakes the sleeper. The moment when the duck becomes the rabbit. When you realise the reader has seen something you hadn’t, or that they haven’t seen something you thought you’d made clear. Realisation dawns. It can also be the self-admonishment. ‘How didn’t I see this?’ It’s also the stage when you start to see threads unravelling. If this bit isn’t working, then this bit isn’t going to work. 

Stage Three. “What now?” You might need an hour, or a day, or a week to move from stages one and two to this stage. It’s where you’ve had a chance to sit with the emotional and justification responses that come in the first stages and can look at feedback and notes and figure out what the feedback means to the story you are trying to tell. Which elements resonate, which don’t. Which suggestions will you work in? 

Working with notes.

People giving you feedback are not the keepers of your story. They are – either peers, co-students, writing circle members, friends, or mentors. They might be strangers – paid consultants, contest readers, 

Not one of those people is as invested in your script as you are.*

Their job is to give notes on the script. Your job is to sift through feedback and solve the issues the feedback highlights. 

* Unless the person giving you the feedback is someone you are accountable to delivering the project to, like your producer, your director, your network, your production company, your lecturer.

Out of body experiences and why you need it recorded or in writing

If you are receiving notes in person, there’s a natural challenge. Your fight or flight response might make it hard to take everything in. It’s a natural response. You’ve just bared your soul to strangers and now they are pecking at your flesh, sometimes in front of others. 

This isn’t a viva voce or dissertation defence. You are not there to defend your script from questions. You want to listen and take in as much as possible so that you can then consider and apply the feedback and notes when you are back in the chair.

This means you can go back to the note and play it back over and again, in context.

In the next and final post, I’ll cover when you should consider AI for notes and why that’s NEVER.