The Script Diagnostic Field Guide

The Script Diagnostic Field Guide is a short checklist designed to be used before rewriting a screenplay.

Rather than offering notes or solutions, this guide helps identify why a script isn’t working in the first place — whether the issue lies with character agency, stakes, structure, or narrative pressure.

The goal is diagnostic clarity:

to distinguish the underlying problem from its surface symptoms, and to avoid endless rewrites that address the wrong issue.

This field guide is intended as a practical tool for:

• screenwriters stuck in rewrites
• filmmakers receiving conflicting feedback
• scripts that “almost work” but never quite resolve

It is not a writing manual, formula, or template.

It is a diagnostic aid — designed to clarify what to fix before you begin fixing anything.

This free guide is extracted from the longer framework developed in Why Your Script Isn’t Working.