Help! My script is too short!

Should I pad it? Add a subplot?

Newsletter #4 - September 22nd 2025

Happy Monday everyone,

Welcome back to another week of The Insecure Screenwriter! Every Monday I answer your screenwriting questions here - so if something’s been nagging at you, don’t wait: hit the button below and send your question in. Big or small, they all count.

This week’s there’s only one question, but it’s a great one.

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QUESTION 1

Bailey from the US

I’ve just finished my first screenplay, and I am very happy to have finished. But it’s much shorter than I thought it would be, just under 70 pages. Any tips on how to add pages to it, like adding subplots?

First, congratulations on finishing a draft of your film. You’ve achieved something most people never will, and that’s worth remembering. As you move into the rewrite, which can be more mentally difficult – be mindful to remember that.

You have accomplished something difficult already.

Now, to your question. The answer is a bit trickier, and some of it may be hard to face.

The standard expectation - at least in the U.S. - is that a feature-length screenplay runs 90–110 pages. Personally, I wouldn’t mind a very tight 70–80 pages if it makes sense.

That sounds good to me.

In fact, short is almost always better than long. Anytime a script nears or exceeds 130 pages, the reader will start with a sigh.

And you never want to start with a sigh.

But since your concern is that your script feels “too short,” let’s explore why that might be. Ask yourself a few tough questions:

Are you sure it’s a film?

This is the hardest question when you’ve just finished a draft. Did you choose the right vehicle for your story? Look closely at the core of what you’ve written. Sometimes, if a script is 60–70 pages but still feels long, it may be better as a 20–30 page short.

On the other hand, if your story doesn’t fully end - or if the characters and setting clearly invite more stories - you may have the makings of a TV show.

Is it underwritten?

Check your scenes. Beyond dialogue, do the action lines feel more like an outline than a fully written script? I’ve seen students turn in scripts that were “too short” simply because they hadn’t written cinematically. Instead of vivid, visual scenes, the pages just sketched the bare minimum. For example if this scene:

Reads like this:

If your script is full of pages like that, the problem isn’t length. Your scenes are probably just underwritten, and on screen they’d actually take more time than they do on paper.

Does it lean heavily on action over dialogue?

Sometimes a script is packed with action but has very little dialogue.

Because action lines take up less space on the page, the script looks short even if the story isn’t. That’s where the old “one page = one minute” rule breaks down.

If this is your situation, the fix is simple: let people know. When you send the script out, add a quick note that it’s dialogue-light. That way the reader isn’t thrown by the page count.

So, no -I don’t really have tips for artificially lengthening your script. In fact, I think it’s better not to. The real task is to figure out why it feels short, rather than trying to pad it out. Adding a subplot just for the sake of more pages usually weakens the story instead of helping it.

Good luck with your rewrite and don’t forget: you finished a script.

That’s huge. Be proud of it.

Don’t procrastinate!

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Happy writing.