Starting a new screenplay is exciting, and for most people, the first act can fly by because there is a lot you need to do in those pages. You have to introduce your characters, the world, the tone, the central conflict, what the protagonist wants... by the time you've done all that, you're usually at page 30. Easy, right?
Well, hold on. Sometimes writers trip themselves up, even this early in the process, either because they want to overcomplicate things or skip beats to get to the meat of their story faster. But even a seemingly small mistake can weaken the plot later on in your script.
Writing and storytelling coach Michael Hauge doesn't sugarcoat things. If you mess up the first two stages of your screenplay, it's pretty much impossible for it to work.
In a Film Courage interview, Hauge broke down the most common problems that plague Act One. And he's right. With how important the opening of your story is, these are issues that can compromise your entire screenplay.
"If you're having story problems, all roads lead to the hero's outer motivation," he says.
Watch his interview below, then let's dig into the three biggest mistakes writers make early on, and how to fix them.
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Missing a Clear, Visible Goal
Every story needs a finish line. What is the clear, achievable goal your character is pursuing? It should be something the audience can see and understand, even if it's a concept like "to fall in love."
Hauge says writers get so wrapped up in the inner journey, character depth, or themes that they lose sight of this foundation. They pile on new ideas and plot points until the whole thing becomes a confusing mess with no real story underneath.
Think about most Hollywood movies. Even complex films like Inception are built on simple goals. Hauge says, "A group of people want to penetrate a person's dreams down to a layer where they can change behavior without him knowing it."
That's it. One sentence, five seconds to say it, and everything else builds from there.
"It's odd because it sounds simple, but it's not easy," he says.
If you can state your hero's goal and have anyone listening immediately grasp what achieving it means, you've laid a foundation most scripts lack. As we've discussed before, characters need clear external goals paired with internal needs. Without that throughline, you're asking your audience to wander through fog alongside an aimless character.
If you feel like you have given your character a goal but are still struggling here, it might be that your story is simply too complicated. Even a highly political and emotionally complex film like One Battle After Another, at its core, is simply about a father trying to get his daughter back, and it's a goal we can get behind and feel excited about.
We want to dive into character. We want complexity and originality. But first, you need that simple throughline. Your character needs motivation that drives every scene and pushes them forward.
One Battle After Another Credit: Warner Bros.
Skipping the Setup of Everyday Life
Stories are often about change. In the typical hero's journey, you see a character living their life before something major happens to shake things up. The inciting incident throws them off their path and forces them to take a larger, more adventurous one.
But we only know what normalcy looks like if you show us.
This doesn't mean you show a full day from waking up to falling asleep, which could be fairly boring. "Everyday life" doesn't mean boring. It's just establishing who the character is before the inciting incident.
Hauge says the character can be in motion—arriving somewhere, in the middle of some small conflict, whatever. But we have to understand this is who they've been for a while now. This setup can be used to foster empathy, or at least some understanding of the character's personality.
Hauge uses First Blood as an example. Rambo arrives in town, and we see him getting hassled by Brian Dennehy's sheriff character. We get to know him before the first big event. The film doesn't start on page one with chaos. It establishes Rambo first.
In One Battle After Another, Leo DiCaprio's "Ghetto" Pat Calhoun and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) are in the French 75. Their typical day includes revolution. But then Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) shows up, and the minute their paths cross, everything changes.
We've written about how empathy works in screenwriting, and the bottom line is that audiences need to connect with your character emotionally before you reveal their flaws or inner conflicts. Show us a human being we can relate to first. Then you can complicate things.
As discussed in our Act One guide, you want to grip readers from the opening pages while giving them a sense of who this person is in their everyday world. Don't rush. Take the time to build that connection.
One Battle After Another Credit: Warner Bros.
Rushing from Setup to Goal Too Quickly
The third mistake is jumping too fast from your setup straight into your hero pursuing their main goal.
Hauge acknowledges that screenwriters constantly hear they need to grab readers immediately, that Hollywood moves fast, and you can't waste time.
All true. But that doesn't mean you rush the story.
Building in conflict early is smart. Rushing the story is not. It takes the entire first act—all of it—to get your hero to the point where they're really pursuing that visible finish line. On a typical beat sheet, the act-one curtain is usually where your character makes a choice that sets them on their main journey.
If you have them chasing the goal by page 10, you risk having a script that dies around page 70. You can't sustain a single goal for that long.
There's no hard-and-fast rule for page counts or where beats have to fall, but there's a reason most people use them, and they've been the same for decades. They work.
The first act will contain specific beats. You're creating the opportunity. You're establishing the new situation. You're getting your character oriented so they understand what their goal is. Then—and only then—they take that first real step toward it. Hauge says that should happen around the 25% mark of your script, not on page 10.
Think of building tension in your screenplay as a gradual process. You're not starting at full throttle. You're like a rocket taking off. Give a countdown, allow the tension to build, then blast off.
How to Avoid these Problems
These three mistakes share a common thread of impatience. And we get it. We want to get to the good stuff. We want complicated drama and action and all those exciting moments that make movies memorable.
But if you don't establish a clear goal, create a foundation for your character, and take the time to properly pace your first act, none of those exciting moments will land. You'll have readers checking out before you ever get to the parts you're most excited about.
Check out our storytelling checklist. Your protagonist needs a clear external goal and internal need. They need compelling flaws. And you need to establish all of this in a way that makes us care.
Does my hero have a clear goal I can articulate in one sentence? Have I shown their normal world and created empathy? Am I giving Act 1 enough room to breathe? Answer all these questions during your outline phase. Then you're ready to really dive in.
