I’ve written dozens of versions of this same advice to beginning screenwriters.

It takes reading a lot of scripts over many years to understand the form but here’s a tip I hope you can use now.

Every word of a script should convey valuable information. Writers hung up on facial choreography aren’t trusting the actors will know how to perform if given insights to character through specific behavior and choices. They forget to leave clues in description detail. They lose sight of the bigger picture while telling the actor how to time his exhalations. -ag