Since I ventured out on my own as a freelance screenplay reader, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a few writers as they write several drafts of their scripts. This has given me a chance to see how different people handle rewrites, and it has given me ideas on how rewrites should be handled overall.
Clearly, when you’re early in the writing process, say around draft 2 or 3, everything in the script needs to be on the table.
However, as you get in to draft 5, 6, 7 and beyond (yes, it takes that many drafts), you need to start focusing on specifically targeted aspects of your script. It can be difficult because when a story is effectively written, all aspects are intertwined, and it would be hard to change one part of the script without changing other things at the same time.
For example, you’re on your fourth draft, and you feel like the story is working pretty well, but the characters need some work, the dialogue is spotty, and you’re not even sure about some of the content. So you want to target your characters, but you’ve got as many as 3 characters that need work, including your main character.
How do you choose what to focus on, and how is it even possible with so many things to work on?
That is the great mystery of rewriting, and it can be very difficult to look at your own work and decide what’s the most pressing aspect of the script to work on. This is where writers’ groups and writing services like Monument Script Services can help. People in your writers’ group are going through a lot of the same problems you are, and can help offer insight on what can help move your story forward. A writing service can offer a professional and unbiased critique of your work and can give guidance on where to target your focus as you move forward in your rewrites.
If your goal is to create a great script, use all of the tools and services that are available to you. Writing a screenplay is a very hard thing to do, and it’s true when they say that screenplays are never finished so much as they’re abandoned. One of the hardest things about writing a script is evaluating your own work. Using a writers’ group of a writing service will get you that unbiased opinion that will help you figure out where the focus of your rewrite should be.
Check out the link below to see how Monument Script Services can help you focus your rewrite.