As screenwriters, we've all heard writing is about rewriting and that all first drafts are shit. Friday, while touring the strand in Galveston, I received a call from a director I'm working with. He said he really liked the second draft script I wrote for him. He now wants me to fine tune the ending and fix a few minor things with my third and hopefully final draft. However, that doesn't mean my first draft was garbage. And, when I write a spec screenplay, I normally do no more than two drafts, However, everyone has differing opinions and I know some people that do many rewrites before the circulate their work. I don't spend time rewriting screenplays unless I have an interested party. How many rewrites are enough and what's your process for deciding what to change or fix?
Screenwriting : Writing is about rewriting? by Phillip E. Hardy, Prolifique
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I wrote a screenplay 6 years ago and still rewrite it..:) I still find things that just don't work.
I wrote a radio play, last century, and took it into a recording studio, in 1999, to produce ten episodes. This year, I have converted it to a screenplay. I am on edit five or six and getting really tired of thinking 'that's finished' only to re-read and find another error. (And that's before I hand it to external editors.) Will this editing process never end??? :-)
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I try to get my 1st draft as close to right as possible. I don't even open Final Draft until all my structure and character work is done. On a positive note, it makes the rewriting process go much faster. There's no structure rewrite, character rewrite, or anything like that. On a negative note, writing the 1st draft takes longer.
Dear Phillip Hardy:
Writing is about the story. Writing is about the characters. Writing is about the writing.
The whole concept of "I'm going to write just to rewrite" makes it seem like people aren't taking the time to write right the first time. Obviously people might misspell things and at that point have to correct those, but rewriting shouldn't be your focus it should be the story. If you feel the story needs something then add that something, but don't rewrite because that's what society says what should happen.
There was an article, this was for computer programming, where there was a question asked about "what makes a good design?"; Now the person in the article ended up coming up with "a good design is only good if everyone agrees on it". I think that concept comes into play with this question. A script is only deemed good, and written good, if everyone who wants to make it agrees it is good.
James Patterson was rejected over 30 times, and then published; How could someone get rejected that many times and still get published? Was it the writing that was the issue or needed a rework or a rewrite or was it just the people who had an opinion on the writing?
To me, if your story needs a rewrite based on the story, then do it; If it doesn't, then do not just for the sake of doing so.
Writing should be about the story not about the rewrite.
God Bless.
Sincerely,
John German
I've learned a few things concerning both screenwriting and book writing over the years. If you've got a good script, you can turn it into a book. The reverse is also true. However, writing the screenplay first is easier...only 120 pages and its so much easier to rewrite than a book of say 180-400 pages, which one must continually rewrite, sometimes pages at a time.
I typically write 5-7 drafts. The first one is always shorter than the last.
If your goal is to sell it or get optioned, you would send it to get script notes from someone you trust, that'll tell you how many rewrites.
I normally do two rewrites unless the script optioned then I go through more rewrites because they always get rewritten during the development/production stages. However when I first started out I would do a ton of rewrites because I didn't know what I was doing at the time.
When I complete a manuscript I look through it many times... scribble notes into it... dialogue that could be improved and I go back and rework all those notes into the script.
I rewrite a script as many times as necessary, but it's also important to never linger on one script for too long. Even if a producer likes a script, they'll always ask for others they can consider.
For my most recently completed script, I went through one rewrite and a couple hard edits, and called it done. Never thought to rewrite it again until a couple producers expressed serious interest in it, and voiced some ideas (not concerns) they had to improve my script. Now I'm working on a rewrite to send it to an interested producer.
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I tried vomit drafts followed by endless rewrites, the problem I have with this method is that once the script is done, apart from fixing grammar and dialogue, I find it impossible to fix structure or character. So I am now working on a screenplay making sure I’m happy with them before even starting writing. It’s taking longer but at least I know that once it’s on the page I won’t have to take it apart again. But each to their own. Taylor Sheridan said he writes one perfect draft only, Aaron Sorkin suggest write it all and then work on it... so it works both ways I guess.
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It could take 3 days to write a script... but 3 years to finish it.