Producers and readers often talk about “white space” when they discuss the look of a screenplay. The goal of the writer should be to find just the right balance of text to blank space. But what is the right amount? Is it better to have no description than too much?

One script page is considered to be one minute of film, and this is worthwhile to remember when you are writing, but the issue of white space is not always this simple. Battle scenes, for instance, can be described in one or two paragraphs but may take up ten or twenty minutes of film time, while a dialogue-only scene may take less than a minute. However, on average, this “a page a minute” rule holds true. This means that if your script is 80 pages long, it is too short, and if it is 150 pages, it is too long. 110 is considered the ideal length (although, of course, certain genres may be a little longer or shorter). So what should appear on those 110 pages?

Consider first of all what type of script you are writing. For comedies, small character pieces and thrillers, less is always more. The pacing of these films is key to their success, so you don’t want your reader getting bogged down in long character descriptions or dull internal musings. However, you also don’t want a script that contains nothing but dialogue. Dialogue with no description comes across as "talking heads," making your story seem stagnant, stagy and more suited to a television soap opera than a cinematic feature. If you have two characters talking, make sure you get across exactly what we are seeing on the screen. What are they doing? Ideally, they are engaging in an activity that either supports or ironically contradicts the dialogue. This does not mean that you have to write out every beat of a character folding laundry for instance. "Sue folds laundry" is enough, but if she is folding laundry, how does this action support the dramatic intent of the scene? Perhaps she slaps Dave with a towel flirtatiously, or dumps freshly cleaned and folded sheets on the floor in a moment of anger.

Even if you are writing an epic or historical drama, this does not give you carte blanche to fill the page with description. Include only the resonant details and only those that clearly move the action forward. If you are writing a battle scene or a chase sequence, and you can cut something out without affecting the upshot of the action, then cut it out. Also, make sure your description does not take up more than five or six lines on the page. If it does, break it up into shorter paragraphs, thereby adding that coveted white space.

A few things to avoid in any genre: a detailed physical description of a character; every beat of a simple activity; actions that are assumed (if a character gets out of the car, we can assume he closes the car door behind him); the internal thoughts of a character, or background information that it is not possible to show on the screen; a summary of an emotional response (such as "She gets angry" -- show this instead either with the character’s dialogue or by a specific action she commits); overly detailed descriptions of any setting.

Be aware that producers, agents, studio executives and readers tend to skim the description, so the less you have of it, the more they are likely to catch it all. That’s why your description needs to be succinct and sharp. Long speeches will also be glossed over. As with description, avoid having dialogue of more than four or five lines. Occasionally, characters do make speeches that are longer than five lines, but the key word here is “occasionally,” and the speech better be gripping and essential to the story. Otherwise, pare your dialogue down to its essence. It is usually either the middle line or the last line of a dialogue patch that contains the gist of what the character is saying.

Reading produced screenplays will help you get a better sense of what to include and what to avoid in both dialogue and description. Read as many scripts as you can, in all genres. Different writers have different styles. For instance, some are a little more descriptive. This tends to be true of screenwriters who began as novelists. However, their prose is usually so superior that they can get away with this -- but this doesn’t mean that busy executives will actually read it all. Writer-directors tend to be sparer, because they know in their head what they want to see on the screen and therefore don’t feel the need to spell it out. Your response to the scripts you read will help you to see what works. A clever bit of description in a comedy will help convey the lightweight tone of the piece quickly, while a terse, tightly paced action sequence will create suspense. Aim to emulate this ability to evoke in your readers the same emotional response they would have watching the actual movie.