HOW TO APPROACH A REWRITE
You just spent days, weeks, months, maybe years writing your screenplay and finally wrote fade out. Congratulations, itâs time to celebrate! Just keep in mind, the work doesnât stop here. In fact, it may have just begun. The first draft of your screenplay is basically a bunch of ideas thrown together in a futile attempt to tell a story. Itâs word vomit and I mean that in the best way possible. You have SOMETHING to work with, which is better than most people can say, so you should be proud. We just need to take things a step further and clean the vomit up a bit. Okay, Iâm done using that word and Iâm making myself sick. Once you complete your first draft you NEED to take a break. Youâre too close to the work and wonât be able to see the issues. Yes, there are issues. No matter how perfect you think you are, there is something that could be done differently or better in your story. So take a week or two off. Watch movies, relax or maybe take a vacation. Do whatever you want, just donât pick up that screenplay. During the time off, you will think about the story. This is okay and in fact itâs encouraged. You will think about scenes and how they might play differently. You will consider the story and think you might need to add or change scenes. These are great thoughts to have but refrain from picking up the screenplay. Jot them down so you won't forget and continue relaxing. Finally, the day has come where you get to pick up your masterpiece and give it a read. Guess what, itâs shit. You read it and realize itâs not a masterpiece. Youâre left somewhat demoralized but you need to pick up the pieces and move on to the next phase of the process. So, instead of wallowing in your own self pity, identify where the story is shit, figure out why and fix the damn thing. The first thing to do is identify why the storyâs bad. You might have too many scenes or maybe not enough. The story might seem boring. Maybe itâs the characters that you donât like or the dialogue. The thing is, the entire story isn't garbage, just certain aspects and we need to correct them. Once you identify an area that you donât like, check the notes you took during your time off and see if there's a solution present. If there is great, use it. But what if there isnât? How I like to approach a rewrite is to remap the scenes from start to finish. One issue I always seem to encounter is the story usually falls flat. Itâs like this odd lull where nothing is really happening and feels like there should be. Itâs hard to always see where this happens so I like to get the notecards out and remap all of my scenes. This helps to identify the gap and it usually takes place between page 20 and 40. To fix this lull, I either add a few scenes or rework the scenes I have. Adding scenes is pretty self explanatory so lets focus on how to rework a scene. First, figure out what kind of rework this is. Are you just making minor modifications or are you doing a complete overhaul? If you simply need to tweak a scene, navigate your way through and make the subtle modifications. If youâre going for a major overhaul, do yourself a favor and just delete the scene entirely and start fresh on it. You might want to try and reuse parts of a scene to help save on time. Donât bother as you will actually cause yourself unneeded stress and cause further delays by trying to piece a puzzle together. You know whatâs supposed to happen in the scene so delete the shitty version and just rewrite a newer, bigger, better, badder version. When it comes to rewrites, there is no good or bad way to approach it. Just remember, you DO need to approach it. The worst thing you can do is write one draft and think its done. So, read your screenplay, identify where it doesnât work and find a solution. Map out the scenes on notecards if needed. Move cards around, take them away or even add new ones. Finally, Iâll leave you with this. Once you finish your second draft, your efforts will be reward with a much better story and the opportunity to start your third draft. Isnât that exciting! Write on, writers! âSean LaFollette www.scriplit.com Facebook Twitter Instagram Tumblr LinkedIn Google +
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