If Mike loves Marni but Marni love Mark and Mark and Mike are best friends from their college days at Michigan... Ugh, and there are another 98 pages to slog through? It can quickly feel like this screenplay was brought to you by the letter M and we're trapped in an episode of Sesame Street. God help you if you've got a character named Aunt Mary who shows up at the end of act one with molasses cookies and sage advice.
I can hear it now... Aunt Mary's name starts with an A. Really? You think Aunt Mary's friends, parents and co-workers all call her Aunt Mary? I have actually had writers argue with me about this. Imaging her lover, as he's about to climax, yells out with grunting passion, "Aunt Mary! I love you!" If that picture didn't creep you out just a little, you've got bigger problems than the letter M.
You also want to minimize confusion for the reader who might find it challenging to follow who is doing what to whom and why. Remember, this reader has to write up a summary of your story for his or her boss. If the synopsis looks like a primary school lesson, you're going to get ignored. Part of your job is to make it easy for the reader to be a fan of your work. Alliterative writing pulls the reader out of the story. Is this supposed to be funny? Is this for kids? Is this a clue? Then, when it fails to pay off, it reveals an inattention to detail. That tiny assessment throws you and your script on the heap with the other amateurs.
Do yourself a favor. When you start naming characters write out the alphabet twice on a piece of paper. Above one set write: First name. Above the other write, you guessed it: Last name. As you use each letter, cross it off. If you've got a story about a family, many of them will have the same last name, but the people who live next door or the principal should have different sounding names.
Make it easy for the reader to love you and your work!
Make it easy for the reader to love you and your work!
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