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  • BANG

    I finished a feature length script about 2 weeks ago and am in the process of polishing it. I remember reading on the various message boards how your first few scripts are generally not great, and it takes a while to improve your skills. Well, I thought I was the exception to the rule.

    Upon re-reading my script after several weeks, I realize that it didn't contradict the rule, it supported it. Talk about lame. If it was a horse, I'd shoot it.

    But it was still fun to write, and I'm working on the next one. For us non-writer writers, sitting on a computer and working on a screenplay is a great escape. And if the script never makes it to the big screen, so be it. I already saw the whole thing anyway.

    Sperry

  • #2
    Sperry,
    Oh, you'll want to see it again. And again, and again. If you wrote about something you're passionate about, you'll keep the passion, then fix the clunks. Most first scripts are the most passionate, and yes, mine was full of mistakes too.

    But the key to this business is passion and perseverance. You've got one, and you'll get the other, if the first one's there.

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    • #3
      Words of wisdom, Funn... oops, Mary.

      When I look back at the first screenplay I ever wrote I can't believe how insipid it was. What utter dreck. At least in the execution (the idea was cool, though).

      Yet, I had one hell of a good time writing it (probably because I loved the idea). In fact, it was the best time I ever had writing a screenplay. It was an "epic horror" written back during a time in my life when my dream was to write a horror movie. It was a dream that I'd been nurturing since I was eleven... almost nine years before I finally wrote it. It was my passion.

      Keep that passion and keep writing, Sperry.

      Tony

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      • #4
        I like your attitude, sir!
        My first script was soooo great! Every scene was chock full of the most intense, character driven, dialog this side of Paul Schrader or Tarantino!!
        Of course, it all sucked and I had to do a page 1 rewrite. I stuck with it, cuz I was very passionate about the story. All my friends, and they were my friends up to that point, thought it was drivel.
        The most important thing to remember, something I often forget, is to keep having fun with it.

        Write on, young commander!!!

        Aghost

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        • #5
          Sperry,

          THe first script doesn't have to suck. I still believe that all my scripts are great. However, I think that you improve your story telling ability as you write more and read other scripts and such.

          Good luck.

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          • #6
            First Scripts

            My first script is the one that's under option. Scripts #2 and #3, though... woof. (And that's just the ones I've completed; there's also all the 30-page wonders that peter out right when I realize that I don't even HAVE a second act.)

            Nathan

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            • #7
              Sperry,

              Congrats! You've gotten further than most. My first drafts suck! They suck! But the rewrites bring them to life. They blossom.

              Write your next piece then go back to that dead horse. Rework it. Make it good. You'll see.

              'First drafts are @#%$' - Hemingway

              AG
              Seattle

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              • #8
                BANG

                Sperry,

                You can still salvage the screenplay. Wait a year...change the names, rework the plot, change locations, cut here and there, tighten up the dialog, and now you have a new script. By this time you should be able to identify those elements that have caused an excellent idea to flounder due to lack of writing experience.

                Good luck...I reworked my first screenplay between scripts #2 and #3 and it turned out pretty good...even though it didn't sell (so far) it did go around the block with a bunch of producers the second time.

                Gary Dover

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                • #9
                  I reworked the lame horse, and actually got it to run. Thanks for the support.

                  Sperry

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                  • #10
                    My first script was fairly good. got an option, never got made. My second one, it makes me ill to look at it now. Then three starts and stops on other ideas and all of a sudden I had a really good third script. And then I started getting work as a writer.

                    Of course, the other thing that happened was I got married. And since, until that time, 90% of my brain was consumed with the goal of getting la#d (can you say "getting laid" on this board?), suddenly, 90% of my brain was freed up for more important things, like writing. That's my theory, anyway.

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