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i'm going to share some things i've learned about myself, and the process of rewriting over my three plus years of trying to make a script the best it can be. literally, relationships have suffered because of this obsession.
fortunately for me, the rewriting process is the most rewarding, enlightening thing in the writing process. it is what separates the pre-pro, from the pro and ultimately will get you work.
in the beginning, the sheer joy of writing was the fix. the waterfall of information that pours down on the page, no order, no subtext, nothing, just words and characters name centered in the page. Ideas germinate from movie scenes, on the nose dialog discombobulated motives; disjointed and rambling. Oh the joy of your first time.
so, a couple months go by and you have 98 pages of a drama that isn't dramatic, a comedy that isn't funny and your relatives wishing you wouldn't hand them any more NEW drafts.
now it is time to rewrite. but here is where the train gets off the tracks. for me, and i guess it's no surprise, i listened to tao. not at first, cause after i finished my first draft, i decided to go to a second script, i even worked on a couple at one time, loving the fact that i could tell others that i'm onto my second script = look at me, i am a writer.
then, the trouble started, i had to many scenes that mirrored one another. the same dialog. wow, did i suck. i realized how in gods creation am i going to sell a script. this is ridiculous. what am i doing?
then i found done deal, and suppled more venom to the threads then a spitting cobra. some could say i was the quack carrying the sign over his body that says 'god will get his revenge. yelling, screaming, wandering.
it was my writing fork in the road. the more scripts i read the more i got discouraged. how would i write something of quality? that's when i saw a post by a guy we now know as tao. he said in no uncertain terms that the most important thing to do is get a script that is as good as it gets.
don't go from one script to another, changing genres like jlo changes wedding dates. to me, he said, hyper-focus. and that's what i did.
to date i can say i've rewritten my second script so many different times i could hand in five different versions. though i have only four completed scripts, hardly any to some of the more prolific writers, i will say that it was worth it.
if you don't know you script to the last word on page 67 then you have't rewritten enough. if you don't realize that just to make minor changes in a thread line it take at least five hours to bring it together from beginning to end. five hours, to many thats a good writing session, in rewriting that's just a snack.
tao made a point, in his eloquent thread about dogville, that theme is the fine line that the story follows, like a crab line that follows a pot down to the oceans floor. it's always there, attached to your characters waiting to be pulled on.
a couple weeks ago, in my endless pursuit to sell a script a la 'person' said what's your theme? i thought about it.
he told me, you know, you have a couple themes here and they all tug at one another. i thought about it. he said, your pov is muddled, even as your drafts get tighter, the theme gets diluted. each time you hand me a draft, though it's better, the themes are pulling the story in differnt directions..
wow. i thought my theme was 'everybody gets what's coming to them'. no, no, then i decided my theme was that a 'boy needs his father'. no, no. my theme is 'redemption'. no, no my theme is 'avarice'. no, no. my theme is man against himself. no, no. my theme is 'faith' in yourself.
hell, i called my contact back and i said, you're right. as i went back through the script my pov, my theme changed, right in front of my face - my story changed as my theme wobbled. wow.
to date, my single most enlightened growth as a write has come from the role theme plays in a rewrite. how each character acted on their own theme, when i reality, the theme drives all the characters motives.
there have been a number of people on this board who have nurture my writing from a far. it always comes back to what works. and what works for me is the constant interaction with other writers and their failures and successes. more often than not we are all committing the same mistakes in our scripts, no matter what the level you're at.
theme is what binds your story together because it is the characters pov. thanks tao, and that other person.
vig
fortunately for me, the rewriting process is the most rewarding, enlightening thing in the writing process. it is what separates the pre-pro, from the pro and ultimately will get you work.
in the beginning, the sheer joy of writing was the fix. the waterfall of information that pours down on the page, no order, no subtext, nothing, just words and characters name centered in the page. Ideas germinate from movie scenes, on the nose dialog discombobulated motives; disjointed and rambling. Oh the joy of your first time.
so, a couple months go by and you have 98 pages of a drama that isn't dramatic, a comedy that isn't funny and your relatives wishing you wouldn't hand them any more NEW drafts.
now it is time to rewrite. but here is where the train gets off the tracks. for me, and i guess it's no surprise, i listened to tao. not at first, cause after i finished my first draft, i decided to go to a second script, i even worked on a couple at one time, loving the fact that i could tell others that i'm onto my second script = look at me, i am a writer.
then, the trouble started, i had to many scenes that mirrored one another. the same dialog. wow, did i suck. i realized how in gods creation am i going to sell a script. this is ridiculous. what am i doing?
then i found done deal, and suppled more venom to the threads then a spitting cobra. some could say i was the quack carrying the sign over his body that says 'god will get his revenge. yelling, screaming, wandering.
it was my writing fork in the road. the more scripts i read the more i got discouraged. how would i write something of quality? that's when i saw a post by a guy we now know as tao. he said in no uncertain terms that the most important thing to do is get a script that is as good as it gets.
don't go from one script to another, changing genres like jlo changes wedding dates. to me, he said, hyper-focus. and that's what i did.
to date i can say i've rewritten my second script so many different times i could hand in five different versions. though i have only four completed scripts, hardly any to some of the more prolific writers, i will say that it was worth it.
if you don't know you script to the last word on page 67 then you have't rewritten enough. if you don't realize that just to make minor changes in a thread line it take at least five hours to bring it together from beginning to end. five hours, to many thats a good writing session, in rewriting that's just a snack.
tao made a point, in his eloquent thread about dogville, that theme is the fine line that the story follows, like a crab line that follows a pot down to the oceans floor. it's always there, attached to your characters waiting to be pulled on.
a couple weeks ago, in my endless pursuit to sell a script a la 'person' said what's your theme? i thought about it.
he told me, you know, you have a couple themes here and they all tug at one another. i thought about it. he said, your pov is muddled, even as your drafts get tighter, the theme gets diluted. each time you hand me a draft, though it's better, the themes are pulling the story in differnt directions..
wow. i thought my theme was 'everybody gets what's coming to them'. no, no, then i decided my theme was that a 'boy needs his father'. no, no. my theme is 'redemption'. no, no my theme is 'avarice'. no, no. my theme is man against himself. no, no. my theme is 'faith' in yourself.
hell, i called my contact back and i said, you're right. as i went back through the script my pov, my theme changed, right in front of my face - my story changed as my theme wobbled. wow.
to date, my single most enlightened growth as a write has come from the role theme plays in a rewrite. how each character acted on their own theme, when i reality, the theme drives all the characters motives.
there have been a number of people on this board who have nurture my writing from a far. it always comes back to what works. and what works for me is the constant interaction with other writers and their failures and successes. more often than not we are all committing the same mistakes in our scripts, no matter what the level you're at.
theme is what binds your story together because it is the characters pov. thanks tao, and that other person.
vig
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