Ask yourself, “How long does it take to write a screenplay?” Exactly. Too long to have to put up with nothing but rejection once it’s done. So why send anything out there that has no chance in hell?  Dig the climate out there among those who put up money for scripts and production.  There is no loose money right now.  Your competition is everybody who ever wrote anything, and a lot of them know the business, have connections, won awards, and already made studios a lot of money.  Everybody who writes scripts is trying to sell one.  The studios are looking to spend their big dollars on proven money-makers such as comic book franchises, sequels, and adaptations of popular best sellers, all of which they own.  Why would they buy your script?  Would you in their shoes?

Here are three things I think your script needs in order to be taken seriously:

-It needs to close the deal on the first five pages.  Ideally, it should be page one.  Failing that, page two.  Do not wait past page five to create something in the reader’s mind that will bring about a strong personal commitment to your script.  If you haven’t done something memorable by page five, why even bother to write page six?  Do not wait on unfunny jokes, voice-over narrative ramblings, poorly-conceived action, or unmotivated dialogue to put off getting into your story.  Nobody has the time, and those who take the time don’t have the attention spans.  It’s got to be a good read from the top down.

-It needs AT LEAST three surprises.  In the old days you could get by with one surprise at the end of the second act.   What kind of surprise?  I’m not talking about little surprises.  Think “The Crying Game.”  Or “Chinatown” (“My sister, my daughter…”).  Or “King’s Row” (“Where’s the rest of me?”).  Those movies only had one. Now I’d say three.  More would be better.  Surprises are hard.  They have to be both completely unexpected and unpredicted, yet somehow fated.  And each surprise has to deepen the story and raise the stakes, otherwise they merely distract.

-It needs to have a story, an actual story, not a rehash, not a series of shocks, not a lot of adventures, but a beginning-middle-end story, with an arc, a progressive series of set-ups and pay-offs that have ever deepening message, and a real meaning.  If you have a good story, you will be way out in front of maybe ninety-per-cent of what’s out there.  A good story is timeless, it will always be good.  Whatever the genre – romantic-comedy, action, horror, sci-fi – the screenplay will rise or fall on the basis of the story.  Story is the real art of screenwriting.

If your script has all three of these, go on.  Send it anywhere. If not, think about these elements when you start to rewrite.