I learned this trick from my friend Björn Carlström, a producer, writer and director in Stockholm, Sweden. It's a great trick for pacing your scenes, and for avoiding the temptation to fill your script with a lot of cuts, camera angles and directorial techniques that have no place in your screenplay.

When you're writing an action sequence that has no dialogue - a silent meal, a lovemaking scene, a search, a fight, a car chase - write the first draft in one long paragraph.

When you rewrite it, imagine where, if you were directing or editing the film, you'd put the cuts. In other words, where would you change camera shots within the overall scene?

Every place you'd cut the film, begin a new paragraph. By doing this, the pace of your scene will match that of the movie. So a car chase made up of lots of cuts will consist of very short paragraphs - sometimes only one or two words -- and the reader will get through the page very quickly. A romantic scene will have fewer cuts, the paragraphs will be longer, and the pace will be slower.

Using this technique also allows you to focus the reader's attention on specific objects or actions without ever using camera directions like CLOSEUP, SMASH CUT, or TRACKING SHOT - a mortal sin in a submission script. And using this device over the entire script will magically insure that it conforms to the one page = one minute formula.

If you don't believe me, check it out. Read a script for an exciting, fast paced action film, another for a romantic comedy, and another for a drama or love story. Notice the lengths of the paragraphs, and how the differences in style affect the pace and tone of the film.