Sorry if this offends anybody.  This subject was something that has weighed on my mind for awhile.  Given the myriad perceptions of the tone of blog posts out there, this might be construed as something that it was not meant to.

Surety in screenwriting is something that I’ve watched disappear as of late.  It might be that most of the scripts I read come from first-timers or those considered amateurs, but I believe there is a lesson here to be learned by all.

When I say surety, I am describing the “sureness” factor of how a script is written.  When (and this includes my own work) a script or book contains sentences like, “He seems to float off the ground”, it makes me think that the writer is on unsure footing with themselves or the story and needs to look it over once more.

Be aggressive and sure of what you see in a scene.  “He floats off the ground” reads much more factual and describes exactly what is going on.  Any time the word “seems” enters into scene action, kill it without mercy.  When you write with surety, the audience reading your script will have a much better time of suspending their disbelief at anything thrown at them.  It also gives them a trail of mental breadcrumbs from which to assemble the scene in their minds as they read it.

Before I write, I recite a simple line from On Writing — Plums deify.  True, it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s not the point.  It is one of the simplest, most straightforward sentences you can write that is also grammatically correct.  It also sends an exact message as to what the subject does, albeit in a passive sense.  Imagine if it read like this: Plums seem to deify.  Are you sure they deify if they seem to?

Remember: state what happens, not what you “think” or what “seems” to happen.  If it’s on the page in a screenplay, it happens and it should be clear.  Clear and concise is even better.  Clear, concise, and with a punch makes me smile.  And it makes the readers turn the page to find out what happens next.

Be sure and confident about what you write.  Be sure that when you write that bit of dialogue you know that is exactly what that character would say.  Be sure in their actions, how they do things, let the story tell itself without a stunted growth of unsureness.