CUT TO: SCREEN SUCCESS; BEFORE SENDING OUT YOUR SCRIPT, GIVE IT THE TALKY TREATMENT.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

For months now, you've gotten up at the crack of dawn to sit at your computer, scribbled notes on scratch pads and napkins, and kept plugging away late into the night at the work that will bring you the fame and fortune you've dreamed about - a screenplay.

A sense of overwhelming joy fills you when you type the closing ``Fade out.'' Your script, you think, has the sophisticated comic dialogue of a Preston Sturges comedy within a structure worthy of Robert (``Chinatown'') Towne.

You address a manila envelope to an agent, seal the script inside, and drop it into the nearest mailbox.

Uh-oh, you may have jumped the gun there, according to Richard Walter, screenwriting chairman at the University of California, Los Angeles, film school and author of several scripts and fiction and nonfiction books.

One of the biggest mistakes screenwriters make is to send their scripts before they're ready to send, said Walter, author of ``Screenwriting: The Art, Craft and Business of Film and Television Writing'' and ``The Whole Picture.''

``When your script is finished, you don't send it to an agency; you don't send it to a production company,'' he said. ``You send it to friends whom you love and you trust to see whether or not it's ready to show to an agent or production company.''

Selling a script, according to Walter, is as easy as one-two: 1) Get an agent; 2) wait.

Below are Walter's suggestions for getting your script from page to film - and a fat check in your wallet:

Register the first draft - and all subsequent drafts - with The Writers Guild of America.

Once family and friends confirm that your script is ready, send a short query letter to an agent that includes no more than one sentence about yourself and another briefly describing your script.

If the agent is interested, send the completed script - not a treatment or synopsis, but the whole script.

If agent or producer suggests rewrites, do it if you agree creatively and continue to maintain 100 percent of the rights.

Then, sit back and wait. Don't bug the agent with calls seeking updates on the status of your script. ``If (the agent) wants to represent the work, (the agent) will do all the work,'' Walter said.

Most of all, keep plugging away. Don't expect things to happen overnight. ``Writers do not fail in Hollywood. They just give up,'' he said.

WRITE FORMAT

A key to getting your script read is to make sure its form and format are professional.

``I guarantee success to anybody who will do the following: recognize that a script is an elaborate catalog of two and only two types of information - sight and sound. Sound is mainly dialogue,'' screenwriting teacher Richard Walter said. ``If every sight and every sound moves the story forward and expands the character, it doesn't matter what the movie is about; it doesn't even matter what happens in the scene.

``It's very easy to understand, but it's hard to do. It takes time to do it.''

Here are some ways to give your script that professional, uncluttered look:

No fancy typefaces or printer effects like italics, boldface or illustrations. Just Courier 12-point type that makes the page look like it came out of a typewriter.

Don't justify the right margins.

White paper only. Use colored paper and you risk coming across as unprofessional, if not a nut.

Be economical. Don't try to be literary - after all, the script serves as a blueprint for a film.

Don't use technical camera talk or try to include details that are up to the director to work out. ``The word `angle' should never be in the script - never, never, never,'' Walter said.

Walter does not recommend numbering your scenes. If your screenwriting software automatically numbers your scenes, take those numbers out, he said.

He also does not recommend sticking the word ``continued'' at the top and bottom of the page to designate that the text is continued from the previous page and will go on to the next. ``No ink on the page that does not have to be there,'' he said.

WHICH AGENT

You can obtain a list of agents who have agreed to abide by The Writers Guild of America minimum requirements. Called the Franchise Agency List, you can get it by calling the Guild at [phone].

CAPTION(S):

Photo; 2 Boxes

PHOTO (Color) While there's no shortage of book-length advice on selling your screenplay, our expert says it needn't be a complex process.

Evan Yee/Daily News

BOX: (1) WRITE FORMAT (See text)

(2) WHICH AGENT (See text)