People think Polishing is Rewriting. Rewriting is structural. Polishing is for a better delivery of the information. Too many people think they nail their story on the first try and think it may need a tweak here and there but this is their story. They're sure. We all have done this. It's a stage of the writing process, truly I believe some people never get passed it. Some people stay in it longer than others.
If you browse the script pages section you'll always see people's posts stating 'REWRITE or 2nd Draft', If you read both drafts they are nearly identical. Same scenes, same characters, a line or two of dialogue has been changed but character's exchange the same thoughts as before.
When you say to yourself that you are really gonna rewrite your story and make it better. Create new scenes, go down different avenues.
Early drafts of The Sixth Sense had the little boy(Haley Joel) the son of a detevtive, and the little boy was seeing the ghosts of the victims of a Crazy Serial Killer on the loose. There was no big twist till the seventh draft.
Early drafts of American Beauty had a murder trial in the center of the plot. The opening scenes took place in a court room.
Look how those two stories turned out. You can see how they are the same, but different too. How ideas were built upon. Good scenes tossed to the way side. Different directions taken.
If you don't have a good, smart critic inside of you, you'll never be able to turn a good idea into a great script.
If you browse the script pages section you'll always see people's posts stating 'REWRITE or 2nd Draft', If you read both drafts they are nearly identical. Same scenes, same characters, a line or two of dialogue has been changed but character's exchange the same thoughts as before.
When you say to yourself that you are really gonna rewrite your story and make it better. Create new scenes, go down different avenues.
Early drafts of The Sixth Sense had the little boy(Haley Joel) the son of a detevtive, and the little boy was seeing the ghosts of the victims of a Crazy Serial Killer on the loose. There was no big twist till the seventh draft.
Early drafts of American Beauty had a murder trial in the center of the plot. The opening scenes took place in a court room.
Look how those two stories turned out. You can see how they are the same, but different too. How ideas were built upon. Good scenes tossed to the way side. Different directions taken.
If you don't have a good, smart critic inside of you, you'll never be able to turn a good idea into a great script.
Comment