
Too Many Writers forget about the Hook
April 29th, 2026
by Harry Caul
Not sure with this spec market why you're wasting your time writing a spec script but hey, do you. I've always noticed that too many writers forget about the opening hook: the first thing we see or hear should hook our attention and then the opeing 10 pages needs to keep it. If you can do that and write a great story your spec script will be good, it won't ever sell in today's spec market but hey, you never know!
Confidence cane out in 2003 and is one of many produced scripts that has a great opeing hook. It has one of the better first ten pages (first page’s for that matter) that I’ve ever read. The movie was excellent and if you have not seen it, I strongly recommend it.
Here’s part of the page of the original script by Doug Jung:
Having our protagonist tell us he/she is dead or going to die is obviously a well-worn device. But if you can find new ways of doing it, and it serves your story, think about using it.
Confidence establishes the circumstances by introducing the secondary characters. As this is accomplished we realize they are a gang of con artists. The opening sequence is them scamming a “mark” for some money. It’s also the inciting incident as unbeknownst to them, the mark works for a major kingpin and now their lives are in danger.
About the Author
I am a professional screenwriter with some years of experience, but I'm gonna say some shit on here that might piss some people off so I am the Mystery Screenwriter.
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