by LB
Do you know the “No Bumps” rule? If readers have to re-read what you’ve written, you lose their attention & your credibility. Make sure your writing flows.
I learned the above back in the ’80s, from the assistant to the CBS VP of Development who was supervising the pilot I was writing.
The Veep and I had a meeting scheduled to get notes on a revised draft I’d delivered. When I got there, he was nowhere to be seen. Out sick, I was told by the assistant, who said she had the notes and had been told to give them to me.
It was the usual who-hah until we reached a point in the script where she looked up and said, “Can you change this sentence? There’s a bump here.”
I said, “What’s a bump?”
She said, “I had to read this twice before I understood what you were trying to say. Some writers have a lot of bumps. You have hardly any.”
“Is ‘bumps’ an official CBS term or something?” I asked.
“Oh no. It’s just what I call it. I read all the scripts that come in because I’m trying to learn as much as I can about the business. Your bump stood out because it was so unusual to find one in your work.”
I reread the description the assistant was talking about, and damned if she wasn’t right. I realized how important what she’d said was, and when the Veep called me and asked how the meeting went I told him the truth. “You assistant gave me the most useful advice I’ve ever gotten in my entire career.”
The next time I went to the Veep’s office, he had a new assistant, an affable young guy. I asked the Veep what had happened to the previous one.
“Oh,” the Veep said, “she’s been terminated. You’ll like this new kid better. He’s never read a script in his life and swears up, down, and sideways that he never will.”
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