The 10-Page Torture Test

The 10-Page Torture Test:
Perfecting your screenplay's first ten pages


Welcome to the Ten-Page Torture Test site.

(http://10ptt.com/smf/10ptt_shake_50.gif)

This website wants to chew up and spit out your screenplay's first ten pages.

It's not pretty.

There will be blood.

A good story isn't enough.

You must tell it well on the page.

Everybody knows the first ten are crucial.

Ten pages to turn your reader into a page-turning fiend.

Spelling mistakes, poor grammar, ambiguity, confused thoughts, unnecessary words, weak words...

These poison your pages and slow down your reader.

To perfect the story machine, writers must rebuild and tune their sentences.

Obsessively searching for the best words to tell your story.

That's what we do here.

I hope you and I help each other to be better writers.

Best wishes,
Pitchpatch


Important things to remember

• From time to time please review the site Terms Of Service (http://10ptt.com/smf/agreement.php), which describes the behavior required to remain a Member In Good Standing.
• The 10PTT.COM forums are mostly public.  Only registered members can post, but anyone on the internet can read the public forums.
• Regular Members are subject to restricted functions and abilities. This reduces the amount of spam we have to clean up. Participate normally in the forums and in time you'll be promoted to the level of '10PTTer' with expanded forum permissions.
• Public forums have no suffix. If you post in a forum with no suffix in its title, remember your words are being published to the world.
• Member-Only forums are available to all registered members and have an [MO] suffix in the forum name. Anyone who takes the time to join 10PTT can view the [MO] forums, so effectively they're public forums too.
• Selected-Members-Only forums have an [SMO] suffix. Regular site members do not see these forums.
• Before you write an angry reply to another member here, take a moment to think about how a judge might view your words if this site were subpoenaed and its contents turned over as discovery in a lawsuit against you.  Stay calm, think about your bank account, and rephrase what you were about to say, ask me to mediate the dispute, or just let it go.

You've already done the best thing for spam when you added the hexagon question. Shouldn't get any spambots that way. Human spammers are harmless, as well you know. LOL. I came here from screenwriting goldmine, from a spam link by a one poster. Wonder who that was hmmm?

Anyway, glad you did. this looks like an OK site so far.



as an aside you should consider adding 'critiques, critique, critiquing' to your keyword list. First time I've ever seen this forum software, be nice if it had a today's post tab, or something.

>> be nice if it had a today's post tab, or something.

On the home page there's an "Info Center" block showing the most recent posts, plus there's a "View the most recent posts" link in the "Forum Stats" block at bottom of the home page.

Can you link me to the page on Screenwriting Goldmine that includes the link back here?  I did a Google search on "site:screenwritinggoldmine.com link:10ptt.com" and nothing showed up.

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7347

There you go. Only posted there yesterday. I'm shocked it's still there, most forums would delete that right away.

http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/forum/search.php?searchid=352209

I'm not 'Ortus,' although no way to prove it, right?

The link seems innocuous enough -- no more spam than any of the other screenwriting links Ortus posted previously.  Ask him to remove it if it bothers you.

Not my forum and I'm not bothered by it. It's the link that landed me here (never heard of this place before), so I'm actually glad it's there.

I've been very impressed by the way you go through 10 pages of a script and strip it bare. I've also been inspired to do the same thing with my own pieces. I have one screenplay awaiting, what i believe to be, final draft and am in the process of finishing second draft of another. I've always preferred to write more than one project at once. I've written for most of my life, I'm just going to give it a shot at being professional now. I'm 37, by the way. I also realise that most, if not all, of what i wrote growing up isn't worth the paper it's written on. I actually have two screenplays hand written from 10 years ago. Life and family got in the way for a while, but writing is what i've always wanted to do.

Thanks for the forum, you're doing a great job so far.

Thanks for introducing yourself, dotdotdot (??).

Your story mirrors mine:  missed some opportunities on the first go around; taking another swing later in life.

The truly awesome thing about screenwriting?  No age limit.  Take a second chance.  Take a third.  A fourth.  As many as you need to get there.  While you've got breath in your chest, clarity of thought, and an imagination that won't quit, success lies tantalizingly almost within reach.

What keeps us going when others quit is a love of language and a love of storytelling.

Welcome aboard the 10PTT ghost ship.

(I wish I meant that as a thrilling prelude to actual ghostly encounters and exciting occult mysteries aboard 10PTT, but no.  This forum is literally a ghost ship sailing the internet backwaters.  Thus my breathless wonder at discovering somebody linked here.  As far as I know, the only other place doing so is Trevor Mayes's Scriptwrecked (http://scriptwrecked.com/).)

Tantalus is right.  Out in Hwood, living the "dream", which resembles in reality an air-conditioned nightmare with lots of Armani-noose-types who offend worse than Oswald offering to pay for Jackie's dry-cleaning.  But writing all the time.  Found 10-page torture test through a forum somewhere and bookmarked.  When I get a free moment, I'd like to chain some language down and whip it until it reveals its secrets: what A? why do you pal around with 'n' so much?  Until then, I sit and stare at blank pages until they stare back and somewhere in that confusing conversation, stories are born.