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The Essential C Checklist
for Screenwriting Success
for Screenwriting Success
By Ed Falcon
June 1, 2025
June 1, 2025
If you want your script to be great, you should consider several aspects when writing, editing, and revising it.
Over my career, I have written 17 feature screenplays and several other scripts for different media. If I count how many drafts I have written for these scripts, we are talking over 100. Through this practice, I perfected my personal method of revising and rewriting scripts, which culminated in developing my "C Checklist" for evaluating and improving a script.
A great script calls for several adjectives that start with the letter C. Although the phrase "The C Checklist" already exists in communications and other fields, it fits perfectly to evaluate and describe a levelled-up script.
Conceive this checklist as a storytelling cheat sheet to guide you in the rewriting process. These notions also help in the evaluation of treatments, pitch packages, and any written or verbal representation of narrative ideas.
The three main concepts (Complete, Clear and Compelling) make up the core of the checklist. A few other qualifiers add up for an exhaustive and definitive look at any script.
COMPLETE
The script should cover the narrative from beginning to end without leaving any critical gaps in the story, or in the characters’ quests and interactions. The order of events does not need to be sequential, but by the end of the script, the reader should be able to figure out the full story.
CLEAR
The script should be considerably easy to understand and follow without complications. Any complexity should connect to a concrete explanation sooner or later in the script. There is space for mystery, but not for confusion.
COMPELLING
The script needs to captivate and capture the interest of readers. The premise and execution of the narrative, as well as the choice of characters and conflicts, should appeal, please, and intrigue the audience emotionally and rationally.
COHERENT
The plot, narrative, structure, and characterization should not counteract common sense, or contradict the rules of its story world. The script must follow pertinent logic and make sense.
COMPETENT
The presentation, format, language, and structure of the script need to be professional, present an acceptable and confident level of writing technique, and show a good understanding of the chosen medium.
CREATIVE
The script and all its elements should show an adequate degree of skill, freshness, originality, and artistry. Countless scripts compete for attention, so it’s crucial to stand out from the crowd. It is important to please the reader by presenting a work that is unique.
CREDIBLE
No matter how fantastic a premise or plot is, the script should be believable. Character actions and reactions should be feasible within the context of the story, its universe, and genre. Suspension of disbelief is a crucial element to maintain so the reader doesn't get disconnected from the reading.
CONSISTENT
Since the story world and characters may have peculiar rules and behavior, the script should conform to those contexts so as not to contradict itself.
COHESIVE
The text needs to be solid in its language, presentation, execution and content. It has to be hole-proof and mistake-free.
CINEMATIC
Without overusing film concepts or camera directions, a screenplay should communicate a complex world filled with sights and sounds that would create a worthy spectacle. Regardless of the intended medium, the script should evoke movie-like images in the reader's mind and imagination.
CONCISE & COMPREHENSIVE
The execution and length of a script, its scenes, and descriptions, should be balanced in a central point. Not too long and detailed, but not too short and vague either.
COMPETITIVE
Ideally, your script should be much more than simply competent. It needs to stand out from the vast majority of works created by other writers. You're your first and foremost competitor, so your next script should be better than the previous one, and every revision should improve your previous draft.
And don’t forget to incorporate constructive criticism from yourself and others as you level up your screenplay.
Read about other essential screenwriting concepts and pointers in my book Level Up Your Screenplay, available in paperback and eBook.
