The 2024 Script Pipeline Finalists: What They All Had in Common

A few weeks ago, Script Pipeline wrapped its Screenwriting and TV contests for the 2024 season.

As we always do, we held a Zoom event with the selected writers to congratulate them, announce the winning selections, and answer any questions they had.

The total number of finalists: ten.

Five for screenwriting. Five for TV writing.

If that number makes you even a wee bit intimidated, I don’t blame you. It’s a small amount when compared to the number of submissions received (in the ballpark of 4,000 for Screenwriting and 2,500 for TV). But at the same time, nobody gets into this business because it’s logical, right?

We do it because we're called. There’s a fire in us that tells us this is the way. Filmmaking, writing, and being creative is what makes our hearts sing. We do it to feel alive, damn it.

... I love getting poetic in my openings.

Anyway, the question of the hour: "How do I make it into these hallowed ranks? What do I need to do to get selected as a quarterfinalist ... semifinalist ... or even a Script Pipeline finalist?"

I was part of the Pipeline executive staff that helped select screenplays this year. And as such, I read the semifinalist field. And when the dust settled, and the top five scripts were chosen, I saw several trends start to emerge. It was clear that all our top entries in 2024 had things in common.

I'm going to share those similarities with you today. But before I dive in, let me be clear: I obviously can't share specific loglines or plot details about these scripts. It's not my place to talk about a writer's work like that (I'm sure most of you understand).

Still, there's plenty you all can glean here. And if you make it to the end, I’ll drop a little nugget of knowledge that will probably motivate you in your own writing journey.

So, without further ado, let’s get into number one ...

1) ALL THE FINALISTS TOOK BIG, WILD SWINGS

Closer to the end of finalist judging, I had basically whittled the field down to seven scripts for my suggested picks. Three, in my mind, were a lock, but I had to rank them all (with my top five being my finalist picks). So, really, it was a competition between four stories.

One was a romcom with a unique, out-there twist. Another was a time-bending sci-fi. The last two were horrors (a creature feature, and a quasi-slasher).

Both horror screenplays were very, very good scripts—that's why they made the semifinals. But they were also a bit ordinary in their structure. The execution was awesome, but they didn't have that "X" factor. Which is why, ultimately, I had to list them outside the top five in my rankings.

At Pipeline, we don't elevate certain genres over others. We firmly believe that ALL stories can be great with the right execution. But what we do value over other elements are writers who "go for it." We want to see people take chances with their storytelling ... chances other people might be afraid to take.

Big concepts, or difficult, emotional territory ... that's the preferred zone. We like scripts that stand out and break the mold, and we tend to reward writers who try something others might be hesitant to attempt.

So if you've got an idea that you want to tackle but it feels like it's just "too insane" to pull off ... you might want to rethink that. It might land. At least for us.

But more than that ...

2) ALMOST ALL OF THE FINALISTS HAD HIGH-CONCEPT IDEAS

Again, I can't share the loglines for these scripts, but we can talk about the importance of having a logline that pops in 2024 and beyond. In fact, let's break it down more than that: what the hell does "high-concept" even mean, anyway?

In short, a high-concept logline is something that grabs your attention within a sentence or two.

Think of it like your elevator pitch. You have ten seconds to sell me on your idea—to make me see the basis for an exciting narrative that feels special in no time flat. If you need to spend four full minutes getting to the story engine of your 137-page feature about a little orphan girl who becomes a basket weaver, then your idea isn't high-concept.

High-concept does not necessarily mean that your script is a genre film either. Two of the finalists this year were straight dramas. It just means they had premises that were easy to understand in a very short amount of time. You could see where the conflict was going to come from right away.

An example ...

LOW-CONCEPT LOGLINE: Former lovebirds with a marriage on the rocks discover secrets about their partner that each thought was long since buried.

What's wrong with this, you wonder? For starters, it’s way too vague. Is this a thriller? Or a family drama? Additionally, while there's hints of a mystery here, the reader doesn't know nearly enough to pinpoint exactly what makes this screenplay special. This logline could literally describe tens of THOUSANDS of scripts.

You need to have a logline that stands out to have a chance. But more than that ...

3) ALL OF THE WRITING WAS ABSOLUTELY SUBLIME

I can already feel you rolling your eyes at me through the screen. Cut that out.

But I get it. Telling you that the top selections in a writing competition had great writing sounds obvious. But the craftsmanship of these scripts wasn't just good. They were GREAT. Truly some of the best I've ever seen. Each one was compelling and special in their own way.

Unfortunately, I can't share samples of this special writing with you here. But I WILL give you the secret for how you can work to become a better writer on your own ...

You need to read. A lot.

One of the first articles I wrote for this website was about the need to read. If you want to improve your craft, I firmly believe you must spend just as much time reading as you write. And far too few of you are doing it.

Exposing yourself to more screenplays is the best way I know to get better. Because by doing this, you'll inherently read a TON of not-great scripts. Stuff that bores you to death, makes your eyes bleed, and leaves you praying to be doing anything else. You'll internally scream, "I do NOT want my writing to sound like this."

And, on the rare occasion that you find a script that takes your breath away, that completely captivates you, and has you white-knuckling every page dying to know what happens next ... those are the moments where you'll go, "Wow! I want the next draft of my material to sound just like this! I'm going to learn from this and borrow what they do!"

You learn just as much from the mediocre scripts as you do the good ones. But without a plethora of samples to judge these against, you'll never know which is which.

Let me also take a moment to tell you what this DOESN'T mean.

None of this year's finalists were typo free. In fact, I'm pretty sure I caught at least one spelling or punctuation or formatting mistake in all of them. But that's beside the point. The narrative storytelling and language mastery of each was so dang high, that a typo here or there didn't matter.

I was engaged regardless. That's what's important.

Because if you can make the reader care about what happens next in your story, nobody will care if you mix up 'your' and 'you're' once or twice.

4) THEY ALL UTILIZED ACTION DESCRIPTION CORRECTLY

This is one of my biggest pet peeves when reading scripts these days. Far too many writers assume that writing a screenplay is the same as writing a novel.

News flash: it isn't.

Pacing and flow are essential in this medium. The absolute WORST thing any reader can say about your script is that it was "slow." That's literally a kiss of death. And if that's the case, what is to be gained by packing your pages to the brim with text, whether it’s necessary or not? Why would you ever want to clump your sentences into giant paragraphs that are eight, ten, or even twelve lines long?

News flash: you don't!

Several of this year's finalists were action heavy. But none of them were, by any means, dense. They broke up their action lines into small paragraphs that were easy to get through, even on a description heavy page. A good rule of thumb, generally speaking, is to never have your paragraphs exceed three or four lines at a time (but two is even better if you can swing it). This makes the script go by much faster.

Follow their example. I promise it will make a huge difference in how your script is perceived by others.

5) THEY ALL HAD CONTAINED, MANAGABLE CASTS

I mentioned this in my recent article about notes I always give, but it rings true here, too. None of the finalists had gigantic casts. There weren't dozens of names to remember or lists of folks to keep track of.

As the old adage goes, “Keep it simple.”

These scripts didn't ask their audiences to remember too many names, or emotionally invest in too many people. That's not to say that they didn't have side characters in their casts; they did. But when you keep the focus of your story on a limited number of people, it frees up our energy to focus on these other folks. Way too many writers try to do the opposite, where they make eight characters or more super important. In these instances, we just end up overwhelmed, and it takes a ultra-skilled screenwriter to pull those types of scripts off.

6) NONE OF THEM WERE TOO LONG

The longest script this year was 109. Which is totally acceptable, especially when the writing is as downright excellent as it was this year. The second longest was 107, and the shortest was 101. Which is all to say ... none of them were over 110 pages.

Remember 120 is the suggested (but not really suggested) limit for feature film scripts. But 110 is honestly the new 120. And 105 is the new 110. Nobody will say this out loud (other than me), but it's true.

These days, page count isn't so much about sticking to a "one minute per page" ratio for time ... It's about not annoying your reader with having to do too much work. It might be a silly fact, but it's a fact nonetheless. And again, it takes a really skilled writer to make a 120+ page script work, anyway.

And finally ...

7) EACH ONE HAD POWERFUL EMOTIONAL BEATS

I felt something in my soul reading each of these screenplays. Every single finalist had at least one beat in their story that moved me emotionally. There was something that hit right in the feels.

I'm not going to dive into this topic too much, and I can't without giving away plot or concept details, and mostly because this article is already wayyyy long.

But I AM working on an article specifically about this topic (utilizing proper emotion in storytelling). Be on the lookout for that one.

Making the final round of any writing competition is hard. It's the culmination of years of work and practice behind the scenes.

I want to congratulate all the writers who made it this year. I hope all of you who may have entered and didn't make the finals will use their success as motivation to double down on your own goals so you can find recognition in the future, whether it's through Pipeline or elsewhere.

Because believe it or not, some of our finalists in this and previous years made it on their first ever script (in the medium they were writing).

My mind was blown when I heard that, too. Absolutely incredible. If they can do it, you can, too.

Godspeed y'all, and happy writing.

[and hey, if you made it this far, use code PA10 for $10 off any entry on Script Pipeline ...]

*Feature illustration by Jorm Sangsorn (Adobe)