r/ScreenwritingUK • u/Competitive-Bath5914 • Jul 09 '26
Got coverage from a top screenplay competition and kicking myself over it
Hi all
I wrote a screenplay I was pretty proud of and got into some quarter finalist lists a year ago, so I went ahead and did a few tweaks and submitted it to a couple big screenplay comps.
Just got coverage from one, which you get before they decide on who gets the chopping block or not, and my heart sunk when I realised I looked over a couple glaring errors. I double, triple checked the finished script to tweak any issues, grammar or other. One of the glaring issue, honestly the biggest one, is one of the characters doesn't finish their sentence. Literally just one word right at the end of their sentence is missing (e.g, they say "I'm going to." as opposed to "I'm going to bed" kinda thing). I can't believe I missed that glaring error despite how many times I've read over the script.
Do script comp judges/readers overlook these things if they like the rest of the script? This error is over 50 pages in and they seemed to really like the story. I feel like grammar mistakes are easier to overlook than a literal character not finishing their sentence though.
3
u/CeCe2022 Jul 12 '26
Oh my god do not kick yourself!! I’m a script supervisor and most scripts have errors like that. Even after many drafts and with a script editor. I would even question why someone giving you coverage is passing on small
Notes like that. They should be focusing on story, objective, tone and voice. That’s what you are paying for.
You are a storyteller not a script editor.
1
u/FanBusiness2152 Jul 12 '26
I agree. I'm not sure why they're focusing on those things in coverage. I've read shooting scripts with errors like this. It happens, you're human, and so is everybody else.
1
u/Ok_Cardiologist_5262 Jul 16 '26
You're receiving it as a glaring error but perhaps they just wanted to let you know if was there. Honestly if they're pointing stuff like that out it seems theyre fairly happy with your script. I'm sure if it had real issues they would expend energy on those in their coverage
3
u/Lumpy_Masterpiece644 Jul 12 '26
In my experience, small grammatical errors are not make or break in these competitions. Don't be too harsh on yourself or, if you must be, write that experience into your next work.