Uncompleted Works

I’m at a unique point in the screenwriting process that separates men (and women) from the boys (and girls).

This weekend I finished my first draft of my as yet unnamed screenplay. It clocks in at 125 pages. Now I have to go into my first of many refinements and revisions. I must prepare myself to the reality of cutting away some fat, no matter how well written.

As Paddy Chayesfky once said:

“Some of my dearest and most beloved bits of writing have gone with a very quick slash, slash, slash. Because something was heavy there. Cutting leads to economy, precision, and to a vastly improved script.”

Here are a couple of my lessons learned:

1. Your screenplay isn’t going to write itself. Yes, it’s good that you have bought many how-to books and have read many blog posts (even this one!) but you have to force yourself and prepare yourself to push through. Which leads me to the next lesson learned
2. Don’t get caught up in formatting and the economy of the page in your first draft. Be sure action text is action, and dialogue is dialogue, beyond that it’s a first draft, so let it rip. You’ll have time in a later revision to make corrections. Try not to think from an editorial perspective. If you do, you might end up working on the first 15 pages until the end of the world. Don’t give yourself a page limit either. It’s better to have more than less.
3. Writer’s block is tough. I’ve found the best way to deal with it personally is to write some scenes out of order. I prefer writing in a contiguous fashion, but if I’m stuck on one scene I’ll work on a different scene I’ve plotted out further in the script. You end up with several “floating islands” that you then can build bridges to you as write.
4. Use active verb tense instead of passive verb tense. Though this is more of a preferential thing. Active verb tense, tends to put things in the “now.” i.e. “Merrel hands the bloody axe to the Warden. He sits, his feet dangle” instead of “Merrel is handing the bloody axe to the warden. He is sitting, his feet dangling”
5. You aren’t writing a novel. Exclusively internal conflict and overly literary terminology will not endear your script to anyone. What you write must be seen by the audience.
6. The vision in your head may not actually be what you’ve written. You may have a great hold on how something looks and feels in your head. The goal of the screenwriter is to effectively get that out onto the page. Plenty of people have good movies ideas, it takes another level of thinking and dedication put it to the page.

Other recommendations are to get a thesaurus, get a good script formatting reference book (I recommend The Complete Guide to Standard Script Formats: The Screenplay) and pick up a copy Final Draft.
- Merrel