The Hole by Samuel Ashurov - Short, Dramedy - While hanging out and drinking at their favorite spot, three teenage friends talk about life and find themselves in the very place that they are. 18 pages - pdf, format

Writer interested in feedback on this work

I didn’t really feel for this piece, but that could be because I am not a 19 year old who can relate to these characters.
It is formatted well for the most part, and I did not see any typos.
It felt to me like part of a bigger script, than a short in itself. Maybe that is because of the length. I think ideally for the 3 scenes that make up the script, it should be more like 1-8 pages.
The middle part in Dave’s House, is the meatiest part for me, where some philosophical questions are raised.
I would break down your action paragraphs a bit, especially the first ones, they should really be no longer than 4, aim for 2, it helps the flow.
'Beat' should be parenthetical I believe. And it's a direction that you use quite a lot. Try to find other devices to break the conversations.

Samuel,

To reiterate what Matthew is saying.

A beat or Beat can be used in the instance you present it with.

Taylor Sheridan uses it a lot. Derek Kolstad too.

Some hate it and others really hate it.

I would say, 7 times in a ninety page script and it would go almost unnoticed.
But in a nineteen page script, people will tend to pick at it.

You have lots of dialogue and not a lot of action. So the suggestion of finding different ways to break up the dialogue instead of using a beat, is a good one.

Keep working at it.

All the best,
Marty

I've never liked the Beat tool myself.

I have only used it once and it did feel unnatural.

I'm from the UK so we'd use 'Pause' anyway... and I have used this rarely. I've never used 'Beat'.

If you're going to use either then as suggested you should do so sparingly.

Quoted from Dustin I'm from the UK so we'd use 'Pause' anyway... and I have used this rarely. I've never used 'Beat'. If you're going to use either then as suggested you should do so sparingly.

That's good advice to incorporate with almost anything screenwriting.