Screenwriting : Rewriting by Kevin Enners

Rewriting can be hard, Kevin Enners. Rewriting is easier for me if I do the heavy lifting when I outline. I break my rewrites into categories: A Story, B Story, Subplot(s), character arc(s), dialogue, etc.

Hi Kevin Enners - my first pass at a rewrite is the first time I'm critical about my own story and it's to get rid of all the exposition (and there's a lot in a first draft of mine) and needless dialogue (frequently I find a lot of blah-blah-blah bookending the few words that can truly lend to the story). Followed by another pass for the same, then another, and... until I've eliminated what I see as unnecessary. Final edit for me is to tighten the dialogue (reading though only the dialogue, no slugs or action). That's my approach. In the end, you have to first be writing for yourself before anyone else. If you invest in creating your best story, you may find others who will as well. Write on!

Focus on the things you can control, and that's writing a good story. Writing is really rewriting, and you'll have a few revisions before you will show it to a few people to receive feedback. Write, tell a commercial and marketable story. The genre's up to you. What's so hard about rewriting? Rewriting is a hell-of-a-lot easier than forcing something into existence the first time you write it.

I guess I see a written work as a building. If you try moving it's structure - scenes - you have to rearrange more scenes and so on.

I do a final readthrough after I've done all of the rewrites, Kevin Enners, making sure the changes didn't affect other parts of the script.

Writing is rewriting. That is the job. (If you want to make income).

I think it's kind of like a push and pull in a way, you like what you have but know it may not be perfect and so rewriting can be difficult, I definitely recommend looking into coverage as that gives a lot of guidance as to where you should go! >>https://www.stage32.com/scriptservices/coverage

I'm big into pre-writing, where you effectively create a "scriptment", which is all the beats in the script without actually committing to writing all the proper prose and detail. This changed things radically for me. It allows you to build a story and play around with it before feeling like you've set it in stone and things are hard to change.

I, too, have loads of ideas, perhaps because I'm retired and have a whole lot more time to daydream and to write. I also write for fun; I enjoy creating new stories. So far, I've written 10 shorts, 20 features, and 4 TV pilots, with ideas for another 17 features and 8 TV shows. But everything I've written has been rewritten, many several times; first, entirely by me, then if I think the project has potential, after I pay for development notes. My suggestion is to finish your draft, put the project to bed for at least a week or more, then pick it up as if you're reading someone else's work. Rewriting will still be hard, but you'll accept it as a step in polishing your stories. And they will get better. Good luck.

Great question, I have rescently learned from a Non-writer Producer, that the Industry looks for "Great scripts" only. Great scripts can be made into profitable movies that is alot like what has made money in the last 4 years, is in production now, and is in development now.

I am adjusting my strategy from writing scripts that would keep me awake in a very comfortable chair to like whatever made the most money on IMDB last year.

2024's winner of the Raunchy Comedy=Deadpool&Wolverine. A couple of anti-heros reluctantly team up to save our timeline, if they fail they will be cast into the wasteland to be forgotten forever.