How to Give Notes That Don’t Suck

So, someone you know recently completed a piece of writing and they’ve sent it to you. They’ve trusted you to read the script that they’ve spent countless weeks, months, or possibly years agonizing over. Unless you’re their grandmother, your response has to be better than “it’s great. I love it!”

Because you probably won’t love it. It’s probably bad, or just ok. But your friend is counting on you. They’ve trusted you to give them feedback. So how do you? Here are a few things you might want to consider.

Feedback Is A Gift (That’s Not Appreciated By Everyone)

Some writers claim to want feedback, but get overly defensive and explain-ey when they get it. I’ll stop short of saying that it’s not your problem, but it is something you can mitigate by using a neutral tone and being diplomatic in your criticism. For example, you can’t just tell them that their dialogue sucks. You have to say

something like:

“While Jim is an interesting character with a lot of potential, his dialogue feels a bit stale in places, especially the scene on page 22, which contains a lot of exposition. Finding ways to dig beneath the surface and add more subtext to his words that better reveals his character well make him feel more developed."

The content of this note is still that Jim’s dialogue is bad, but I’ve softened the blow a bit and pointed to a specific scene that could be improved. Jim, as a character, might be a rusted old clunker, but he’s still got an engine that will work just fine if some basic repairs are made.

Intention Is Everything

While most scripts have their redeeming qualities, some are so bad that you’ll struggle to think of a single positive thing to say. You might even find yourself muttering angrily under your breath as you read — cursing the writer for using up your precious brain space on this crap.

It happens. As writers, we’ve all excitedly banged out a script in a rush of inspiration and been blind to its failings. I once sent an ill-conceived comedy sketch to a seasoned writer and sat across a desk from him while he, stone-faced, went through every joke and asked me to explain why I thought they were funny. Ouch.

In this case, I always look beneath the surface to find the author’s intention. Ok, maybe your Jackie Robinson zombie screenplay is terrible, but the concept of mixing zombies and baseball might have some merit. What are you trying to say with this story? Is there some thematic point you’re trying to make about sports and death? Is this a new, darker entry into the Angels in the Outfield cinematic universe? Whether it’s a concept, a character, or even a single interesting line of dialogue, every piece of writing has some spark of inspiration that you can use as the bedrock for constructive notes.

Zoom Out

A lot of writers will want notes on specific scenes or lines of dialogue when their script is fundamentally broken. This is like asking your landlord to change a lightbulb in your apartment while the building is actively collapsing. Not the top priority.

In my experience, unless you’re reading the second or third draft, your notes will most likely need to address broad-strokes changes. 90% of the notes I’ve given to scripts I’ve judged in writing competitions have been about clarity and stakes.

Why the characters do what they do, and why we should care — that’s the whole game. If I can’t understand what your characters are pursing, why they make the choices they make, and why it matters if they succeed or fail, we have a big problem. As a reader, I should be able to describe your story in 30 seconds and be able to at least communicate the core concept and the biggest obstacle in your plot. If I can’t do that, then your script probably has issues with clarity and stakes.

Give Suggestions, Not Orders

It can be tempting to tell a writer exactly how they can fix their story. If they just changed XYZ, it would work. It’s so obvious!

This is like that spectator who, after a failed round of charades, blurts out what you should have done instead. We can all agree that that person is the worst, right? Of course it’s easy for them, they didn’t have the pressure of being in the spotlight! They didn’t share your perspective. And I think this is true when we’re reading someone else’s work. We might think we understand what they are trying to say with their story, but we might not.

We can’t assume we know the writer’s intention with a story, so we should use a gentle hand when sharing our opinion on how they can make the story better. I like to use "if, then" statements when appropriate.

If your goal is to have the protagonist be unlikable, then...

If the villain's speech on page X is supposed to be intimidating, then you might want to...

The goal isn't to change their story into one that we would write. It's to dig beneath what's written on the page and figure out what kind of story the writer is going for and how they can improve it.

We dig, dig, and keep digging, because:

To Give Notes is to Mine for Gold

All notes are subjective. No one person is the grand taste-maker who can definitively judge whether a piece of art is good or bad. Nobody knows if a screenplay can be successfully translated into a hit movie. Nobody. If The Emoji Movie can make over $200 million at the box office then there’s probably a world where the Jackie Robinson zombie movie gets made, and Three Strikes and You’re Dead is #1 at the box office (alt title: Swinging for Survival).

Your job, whether you’re giving notes to a friend or to the head of a studio, is to look for the potential on the page. If you believe, as I do, that every script is born from some nugget of truth, inspiration, or obsession on the writer’s part, then it’s your job to uncover that nugget and reveal it to the world (and sometimes to the writer themselves).

To share your writing with someone is an intensely vulnerable act. If someone trusts you enough to elicit your opinion, take your job seriously. Give them thoughtful notes. Be honest about the story's shortcomings. Highlight at least a few strong points in the script. And be sure to thank them for sharing.