So...
I just finished a read/notes for a fellow screenwriter. Great concept, good characterization, iffy story - so not there yet.
But it was his 10th draft. Ten-th.
I asked to take a look at his first and third drafts. Same issues, but with wholesale differences in the storyline.
I have my own theories about why this particular writer has had to do so many drafts on this particular screenplay, but it makes me curious: How many drafts is usual for the fairly experienced writers here? Ten is a flabbergast-inducing number to me.
I'm not talking about tweaks and minor revisions to solid drafts; I mean drafts that contain major changes to plot, characters, arcs, etc. Weigh in, please.
Maybe five-ten drafts that contain major changes to plot, characters, arcs, etc. Maybe more.
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Man, that's a rough go right there.
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3 or 4 drafts for notes/feedback and then turn in to rep, and I am done. Move on to next idea.... however I spend more time/sketching/thinking about outlines/treatments/map sequences like DVD chapters
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The first screenplay I ever attempted went 60 drafts (on and off over many years) - I started out not knowing a thing about formatting or anything else. I got lots of coverage and read lots of books in those years working on that script, which I consider to be my college. I learned a lot. These days I block out my story and do 3 to 4 drafts per script.
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I do one or two and call it a day.
I'm in line with Dan on this one. My goal is to hit the story I want to tell on the first draft. I revise lines, scenes, or dialogue from there. But I never ever want to do a big rewrite. And yeah, yeah, "writing is rewriting." To me, writing is writing, and rewriting is editing. I think if you have to do a ton of drafts, all of which have big story changes, you were not ready to write that first draft to begin with.
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I'm up to thirteen, with a lot of learning, feedback and revising along the way, and now have a script I'm proud of. I hope the next one won't involve so many re-writes because I have a way better understanding of screenplay now, and I'm not trying to juggle a day job with my creative writing.
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Depends, the definition of draft is flexible for most people. I’ll polish a screenplay a lot, change dialogue, fix scene description etc.
For me a draft makes major changes.
I heard that Vince Gilligan created 40 drafts for Hancock and then left the project.
I am doing a rewrite for my screenplay “Next Caller”. He was a right wing nut bag. I am making more money focused. I need to make that major change in his personality for the story. Now he is playing to the right wing extremists rather than being one.
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According to a vox.com article, it took Eric Heisserer over one-hundred drafts before he figured out the screenplay for Arrival. Of course, he was adapting what was considered an unadaptable short story. And it was a passion project he was writing on spec. So I'm guessing all the rewrites involved in cracking the story for Arrival is the exception and not the norm?
With one of my screenplays, it took around twenty drafts before I got a "consider" rating from a coverage service. About five of those drafts were what I consider "hard rewrites."
Twenty drafts don't seem so bad after reading that vox.com article!
A big shout out to Eric Heisserer for slogging through all those drafts until that epiphany moment when he figured out how to "think like an alien." Thanks for not giving up on the project!
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I think everyone's comments show that not all re-writes are created equal. This might be a cop-out, but every screenplay arrived at a different rate. On one hand, Paul Schrader wrote Taxi Driver in 15 days. On the other, you have Eric Heisserer's story of 100 drafts for Arrival.
Regarding the specific situation you mentioned, you describe a consistent problem in 1st, 3rd, and 10th drafts. Regardless of content differences in the storyline, you said the story itself remains "iffy" and " just not there". To my mind, whatever the issue is, it's not going to get solved by just slogging away at draft 11. Maybe a huge shake-up is what's needed - same characters but different genre, or same concept but different time period, or a 150 page treatment winnowed into an 85 page screenplay, or trying to capture the essence of the story as a poem. Persistence doesn't mean having to beat your head against the exact same cinder block of the wall in exactly the same way every time.
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Imma pull from "The Screenwriter's Life" podcast with two award-winning screenwriters on this one - Meg LeFauve (Inside Out and Captain Marvel) said that 12 drafts is pretty normal. I think it's the episode when they talk with Andrew Stanton: https://anchor.fm/thescreenwritinglife
I do think you have to take into consideration how many sources you may have to appease - if you're the writer/director, for example, then you probably don't need as many drafts as someone having to work with a studio, an A-list actor, or a director with "creative differences". I also think I do not track my versions as well as some others, so I couldn't say how many iterations I tend to do LOL