The first three to five pages are the most important pages of your script.

That may sound like something of a bold statement, considering that most screenplays approach 120 pages and considering all of the things that a writer needs to accomplish in those pages. A statement like that might lead you to wonder why to keep writing at all if the next 115-117 pages don’t mean as much as the first 3-5. Well here is the answer. If you don’t hook a reader, executive or producer within the first 3-5 pages, they won’t bother reading the next 115-117 pages.

Someone who is new to screenwriting might ask what it means to “hook” someone. The answer is quite simple. When you submit a script to an agency or a studio, you have to remember that your script is one of 30-50 that they’re going to have to review that week. The people reading your material are going to need to know within 5 minutes if this script is going to be worth the time and effort to read the whole thing. If they get more than 5 pages into it, and it hasn’t piqued their interest, it will almost certainly get passed on. But, if you give them a powerful moment within that time frame, you give them a reason to expect more and they will continue on. You have essentially “hooked” the reader, which should lead to your next question.

What should I do to hook the reader?

That all depends on the type of story you’re telling. Some writers like to start off with an intense action sequence, ala every James Bond film ever made, thinking that will suffice. Those are obvious moments, but it needs to fit into the context of your story and you don’t want to just have action for action’s sake. For example, if you’re writing a romantic comedy you wouldn’t try to hook the reader with a car bomb exploding at the beginning. Instead you might want to show one of the protagonists getting left at the alter or broken up with in a crowded restaurant. If you’re writing a detective story, consider opening by showing the crime that the detective is going to have to solve.

Consider the hook either as the event that disturbs the hero’s Ordinary World or an opportunity to introduce your hero in a dramatic way.

Using the example of Jerry Maguire, Jerry, the hero, lives in an Ordinary World where he is a successful sports agent working for one of the top agencies. We’re introduced to Jerry glad handing the top people in sports, working deals and using his charm and charisma to make things happen. Then one of his clients suffers a serious injury during a game and that leads to the player’s young son telling Jerry off, leaving Jerry with the realization that he hates his place in the world, and it happens within the first five minutes of the film, meaning it happened withing the first five pages of the script. It’s subtle, but it is a hook. It’s almost like an internal explosion within Jerry, and it leads him to write the mission statement that will eventually get him fired, but also attract his future wife. As a reader of the script or a viewer of the film, that is a powerful moment that makes you want to see where it goes from there. It is both where we meet Jerry and and where his Ordinary World is disturbed. His life will never be the same.

That is the hook.

Does your script have a hook? Do you think you have one, but it might not be effective. That, among other things is something we can help writers with at Monument Script Services. If you’re struggling with your hook or any other aspect of your script, please see the link below to see how we can help.

http://monumentscripts.com/service/