Blog Post: How to Read a Screenplay
Background [in brief] In 1996, I left university with a BFA in Theatre with a specialization in acting and a minor in English. Graduating with ‘honours’. I was literally three credits away from getting a double major but had recently broken up with a boyfriend of five years (who I was living with at the time) and couldn’t fathom sticking around for another summer and delaying graduation. I mucked around for a couple of year, half-heartedly looking for an agent, then auditioning, etc. But in 1998, I started writing again, short films and screenplays. I took a bunch of courses at Vancouver Film School, made a bunch of short films (writing, directing, and producing), and wrote and pitched (aka tried to sell/get made) dozens of screenplays (again literally). Fast forward to 2011, I wrote my first novel (After the Virus) and then never really looked back.
Written in 2002, Deception (originally called Abigale Awakes) was the first screenplay I deemed worthy of actually showing people (beyond my writing groups/teachers, etc). I pitched it to numerous producers for a number of years and actually got read (this in itself is a feat 🤣). One Vancouver-based production company was very interested but the partners were split (right down the middle) between making it as a feature film or a movie of the week, so they ultimately passed.
Early on I leaned toward thriller construction (which I mostly still do) with a strong female lead with an unknown or dark past on the edge of … well, let’s say with lots of shades of grey. 😜 No horror and/or supernatural elements (yet).
And so, I present Deception! [Not my very first completed screenplay, but near to it].
Logline: When Abigale discovers a mysterious box among her dead mother’s belongings she’s compelled to uncover its secrets of a 25-year-old murder, an adulterous affair, and maybe even her own parentage, only she’s forgotten the past has a way of repeating.
Synopsis: Abigale St. John’s life as an introverted children’s book author is thrown into uncertainty when she discovers a mysterious memento box among her dead mother’s belongings. As she sorts through the contents of the box, with the help of a newspaper reporter, Mark Mckinnis, she discovers a history of love, betrayal and murder, a family she’d forgotten, and a love she’s never felt. But when the past repeats Abigale finds herself on the same murderous route her mother may have chosen twenty-five years before, and the life and love she’s found is thrown into jeopardy.
Genre: psychological suspense (think Lifetime or Netflix or Women’s Fiction)
Reading length: 102 pages (so approx. 25k words aka a short novella)
PURCHASE THE SCREENPLAY
– Direct from MCD –
Interested in discussing this screenplay with other readers?
Feel free to discuss in the comments below. Also you can pop over to the Reader-Run Facebook Fan Group – spoiler group, where MCD is not a member, so you can chat without worrying about hurting her feelings. 😊