There can often be a huge discrepancy between the story that your writer(s) work so hard to put on the page and the story that the reader “gets”, and that can add up to big problems for the project. It’s like a translation problem, where you’re writing, say, a moody thriller with an intense, damaged hero, but the reader, or worse, multiple readers, think your hero is too self-absorbed and they find it hard to root for him or her. Even worse, your attempt to impart a specific mood on the page doesn’t translate and maybe even backfires. It’s extremely hard to bring a human soul to life on the written page, and it’s even easier for the few words on the page to unintentionally steer the reader in wrong directions. to misinterpret what’s been written.
Make sure they’re seeing the movie you wrote, not a misinterpretation of it.
The number one response that producers have to “gap’ in the scripts they have developed (and gotten close to), is that the reader is simply wrong. But with ten (10) different readers all providing different coverage reports, plus then the story editor’s 10+ page report, they are much more likely to be able to see where the project may still need additional work.
The Importance of Testing for GapMPII2017-12-11T23:27:06-08:00