I am writing my first feature film script, finished a first draft. So many holes to fill, bumps to smooth out. I would love to hear some numbers on revisions/rewrites for some popular movie scripts if anybody knows, that would be inspiration to know that the process involves many revisions, so as to not get discouraged on a first draft. Anybody know some famous scripts and the number of revisions/rewrites that were done for the script(s)?
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number of rewrites (revisions) ?
- Thread starter Joe999
- Start date
I don't know of any numbers off-hand, but I will say -- don't be discouraged by the number of times you feel you need to rewrite something. I rewrote my last completed screenplay 9 times before I thought it was the absolute best I could do. I wanted to give up on it so many times, but I loved the idea for it too much to put it down.
Just get as much honest feedback you can (preferably from other writers) for each rewrite and eventually you'll feel as if you've taken it as far as possible -- you'll know when you hit that point, and it feels great.
Just get as much honest feedback you can (preferably from other writers) for each rewrite and eventually you'll feel as if you've taken it as far as possible -- you'll know when you hit that point, and it feels great.
Thank you for the encouragement. Now when you, or other writers, or books on screenwriting, say "rewrite" what does that mean? A complete retyping from scratch, or going in and revising by adding/deleting/editing scenes? I would think the latter, but this being my first feature screenplay the process is still a bit fuzzy to me.
I don't know of any numbers off-hand, but I will say -- don't be discouraged by the number of times you feel you need to rewrite something. I rewrote my last completed screenplay 9 times before I thought it was the absolute best I could do. I wanted to give up on it so many times, but I loved the idea for it too much to put it down.
Just get as much honest feedback you can (preferably from other writers) for each rewrite and eventually you'll feel as if you've taken it as far as possible -- you'll know when you hit that point, and it feels great.
For me, there is really no concrete process. Sometimes you need to scrap everything you've written and start from scratch with the same concept, and other times you just need to rewrite/add/remove certain scenes. I would say there is no one way to it; it has to be what feels right.
If you finish a draft and think you could do better if you started over, then start over. If you think a majority of the story is great, but the ending sucks, rewrite the ending and leave everything else intact.
Think about it this way... A great screenplay is a great screenplay. Period. A producer isn't going to read it and ask how many drafts you had to do. The end result is all that matters.
If you finish a draft and think you could do better if you started over, then start over. If you think a majority of the story is great, but the ending sucks, rewrite the ending and leave everything else intact.
Think about it this way... A great screenplay is a great screenplay. Period. A producer isn't going to read it and ask how many drafts you had to do. The end result is all that matters.
Joe999...
Massive subject here -- not sure I can get it all down in one fast, off the top of the head reply...
In my opinion, you need to explode that first draft out of your system... Don't worry about length. Don't worry how visual it is. Don't worry about dialogue or locations. Don't worry about ANYTHING but getting that fuckin' story out of your brain and onto the page.
Whew. Felt good, huh?
Now the real work begins... Take a few days off -- you deserve it. You're too close to the story right now so no need to tweak and rewrite just yet.
Maybe you need a week -- maybe a month.
Whatever amount of time YOU need to distance yourself from the material -- take it. Get involved with something else during that time... Not necessarily another story either. Go have some fun. Do something physical to clear your synapses.
All done?
Now it's time to beat the shit out of that script. Analyze your structure. Is it SOUND? Will it sell? Does it tell the story YOU really wanted to tell? If not, make notes about that. Figure out what areas are weak and need just a tweak or an entire rewrite.
Analyze each scene... Especially the longer scenes... You know, those scenes that run over three pages. Is there any way you can compress all those pages down to 2.5 pages? 2 pages? 1.5 pages? 1 page?
Get the idea?
It's very likely that ALL the information is right there in front of you but it just needs to be more concise... Happen more quickly. So you analyze those scenes and see if you can take some of the action and dialogue and move it toward the end of the scene. In other words, keep pushing everything forward. Pack it in. Take some things out that do not need to be there even if you love it but it really serves no real purpose like revealing character, providing exposition, or moving the story forward.
It's not a lot different than spreading out a deck of playing cards across a table. That spread out deck represents your first draft but you need a winning hand, right?
So there's a lot of cards in there you simply don't need. What's a winning hand? Is it a full house? Is it a flush? A straight? That's what you need to decide... You keep taking cards out until you have a winning hand but at some point you decide that three deuces and two aces isn't good enough so you have to put those Jacks back in because you like Jacks.
Same with the first draft... As I said, if you allowed yourself to get that first draft completely out of your system, then very likely, everything you need is there in front of you -- you just have to know how to find it.
You find it by moving things around. I like to start by going after the longest scenes. They're long for a reason and most of the time it's because of my own vanity... LOL. Some character goes off on a tangent and I let them do it. I read what they said and it's fuckin' cool so I leave it. As you should for the first draft of anything
But now it's time to get serious... Cut the SHIT. Shit is the stuff that stinks. Stuff that you don't need. Stuff that bogs the story down even if it comes across as "kinda cool."
The best way to cut scenes (in my opinion) is to move the scene forward. Find a point in that scene that you've written and imagine starting that scene right there instead earlier where you actually started it.
Now take the stuff before it -- the action and dialogue and see how you can add SOME of it to the new starting point. If you keep at it, you'll get it and as you keep getting it -- you'll get better at getting it.
After you've cut all the long scenes down, time to go after the shorter scenes and do EXACTLY THE SAME THING... LOL.
When that's accomplished, you go after the dialogue. Most first draft dialogue is ON-THE-NOSE so you go after it with an eye towards coming up with new dialogue that essentially means the same thing but you come up with a different way to say it. Something maybe a little ambiguous. Maybe not. The point is that the dialogue sounds like the character is saying one thing but meaning something else. Subtext.
Tweak all the on the nose dialogue... Will one word suffice for a complete sentence somewhere? Great. Put it in.
Make sure all the characters do not sound alike. Their dialogue needs to single them out.
Cut.
Tweak.
Rearrange.
Rewrite.
Will some of that dialogue serve the story better if you move it ahead like you did the scenes? Try it. Try combining several sections of a character's dialogue into one section. You save space and maybe, the dialogue has a little more impact.
Locations. Are these the very best locations for the characters to be acting out the story? Are there better locations? Are there any locations you can think of that WE'VE never seen before? Cool, use those. Make sure you describe those locations so that we immediately GET IT. See it in our head. Pick out the most visual aspects of that location that combined with your story or theme, might impact us even more and use it.
Character introductions... Are they visual? Do they make me visualize your character? Does an image of SOMEBODY pop into my head when I read your character intro? If not, tweak it and make it do exactly that.
Action lines... Are there passive sentences? Cut them ALL. Make them active.
Transitions... Do your scenes simply cut from one scene to the next? If so, try creating artistic and emotionally impacting transitions from one scene to the next.
In other words, make PASSES on the script for each kind of tweak and just work on that aspect. Make a list and then make a pass on each element on your list.
When you're done with it. DO IT AGAIN. Repeat the entire process.
At this point, you're probably very close to a real screenplay worth reading.
Good luck with it!
filmy
EDIT: As to your original question... A screenplay needs as many rewrites to get it right. Some are lucky and get it completed in a few drafts... Some screenplays of large films have been through over 20 drafts. The larger movies go through a lot of rewrites because nobody knows anything -- as William Goldman once pointed out. That means studio execs and a hell of a lot of producers along with directors and actors.
In other words, everybody gets in on the story... Everybody wants that SCENE that's gonna make THEM stand out so we write it in for them but then somebody else doesn't like what we wrote so then there's the domino effect and more writers are given the opportunity to fix it and rewrite so by the time that movie ends up on the big screen, it just ain't the movie that the original writer WROTE.
Massive subject here -- not sure I can get it all down in one fast, off the top of the head reply...
In my opinion, you need to explode that first draft out of your system... Don't worry about length. Don't worry how visual it is. Don't worry about dialogue or locations. Don't worry about ANYTHING but getting that fuckin' story out of your brain and onto the page.
Whew. Felt good, huh?
Now the real work begins... Take a few days off -- you deserve it. You're too close to the story right now so no need to tweak and rewrite just yet.
Maybe you need a week -- maybe a month.
Whatever amount of time YOU need to distance yourself from the material -- take it. Get involved with something else during that time... Not necessarily another story either. Go have some fun. Do something physical to clear your synapses.
All done?
Now it's time to beat the shit out of that script. Analyze your structure. Is it SOUND? Will it sell? Does it tell the story YOU really wanted to tell? If not, make notes about that. Figure out what areas are weak and need just a tweak or an entire rewrite.
Analyze each scene... Especially the longer scenes... You know, those scenes that run over three pages. Is there any way you can compress all those pages down to 2.5 pages? 2 pages? 1.5 pages? 1 page?
Get the idea?
It's very likely that ALL the information is right there in front of you but it just needs to be more concise... Happen more quickly. So you analyze those scenes and see if you can take some of the action and dialogue and move it toward the end of the scene. In other words, keep pushing everything forward. Pack it in. Take some things out that do not need to be there even if you love it but it really serves no real purpose like revealing character, providing exposition, or moving the story forward.
It's not a lot different than spreading out a deck of playing cards across a table. That spread out deck represents your first draft but you need a winning hand, right?
So there's a lot of cards in there you simply don't need. What's a winning hand? Is it a full house? Is it a flush? A straight? That's what you need to decide... You keep taking cards out until you have a winning hand but at some point you decide that three deuces and two aces isn't good enough so you have to put those Jacks back in because you like Jacks.
Same with the first draft... As I said, if you allowed yourself to get that first draft completely out of your system, then very likely, everything you need is there in front of you -- you just have to know how to find it.
You find it by moving things around. I like to start by going after the longest scenes. They're long for a reason and most of the time it's because of my own vanity... LOL. Some character goes off on a tangent and I let them do it. I read what they said and it's fuckin' cool so I leave it. As you should for the first draft of anything
But now it's time to get serious... Cut the SHIT. Shit is the stuff that stinks. Stuff that you don't need. Stuff that bogs the story down even if it comes across as "kinda cool."
The best way to cut scenes (in my opinion) is to move the scene forward. Find a point in that scene that you've written and imagine starting that scene right there instead earlier where you actually started it.
Now take the stuff before it -- the action and dialogue and see how you can add SOME of it to the new starting point. If you keep at it, you'll get it and as you keep getting it -- you'll get better at getting it.
After you've cut all the long scenes down, time to go after the shorter scenes and do EXACTLY THE SAME THING... LOL.
When that's accomplished, you go after the dialogue. Most first draft dialogue is ON-THE-NOSE so you go after it with an eye towards coming up with new dialogue that essentially means the same thing but you come up with a different way to say it. Something maybe a little ambiguous. Maybe not. The point is that the dialogue sounds like the character is saying one thing but meaning something else. Subtext.
Tweak all the on the nose dialogue... Will one word suffice for a complete sentence somewhere? Great. Put it in.
Make sure all the characters do not sound alike. Their dialogue needs to single them out.
Cut.
Tweak.
Rearrange.
Rewrite.
Will some of that dialogue serve the story better if you move it ahead like you did the scenes? Try it. Try combining several sections of a character's dialogue into one section. You save space and maybe, the dialogue has a little more impact.
Locations. Are these the very best locations for the characters to be acting out the story? Are there better locations? Are there any locations you can think of that WE'VE never seen before? Cool, use those. Make sure you describe those locations so that we immediately GET IT. See it in our head. Pick out the most visual aspects of that location that combined with your story or theme, might impact us even more and use it.
Character introductions... Are they visual? Do they make me visualize your character? Does an image of SOMEBODY pop into my head when I read your character intro? If not, tweak it and make it do exactly that.
Action lines... Are there passive sentences? Cut them ALL. Make them active.
Transitions... Do your scenes simply cut from one scene to the next? If so, try creating artistic and emotionally impacting transitions from one scene to the next.
In other words, make PASSES on the script for each kind of tweak and just work on that aspect. Make a list and then make a pass on each element on your list.
When you're done with it. DO IT AGAIN. Repeat the entire process.
At this point, you're probably very close to a real screenplay worth reading.
Good luck with it!
filmy
EDIT: As to your original question... A screenplay needs as many rewrites to get it right. Some are lucky and get it completed in a few drafts... Some screenplays of large films have been through over 20 drafts. The larger movies go through a lot of rewrites because nobody knows anything -- as William Goldman once pointed out. That means studio execs and a hell of a lot of producers along with directors and actors.
In other words, everybody gets in on the story... Everybody wants that SCENE that's gonna make THEM stand out so we write it in for them but then somebody else doesn't like what we wrote so then there's the domino effect and more writers are given the opportunity to fix it and rewrite so by the time that movie ends up on the big screen, it just ain't the movie that the original writer WROTE.
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For my latest Ten Dead Men we did 9 versions (the last 5 were small changes) and even rewriting on teh day we shot the voice over.
My previous script FIXERS was around the same.
My answer: As many as it takes to get it RIGHT.
My previous script FIXERS was around the same.
My answer: As many as it takes to get it RIGHT.
Basically, do everything filmy suggests... but as a rule of thumb, on your second pass halve the dialogue and double the action.
99% of writers write too heavy on the dialogue and too light on the action... until you get used to the particulars of screenwriting, it's good to force your rewrite in to say less and do more.
99% of writers write too heavy on the dialogue and too light on the action... until you get used to the particulars of screenwriting, it's good to force your rewrite in to say less and do more.
I have been worrying I have too little dialog actually. Any guesstimates as to what percent of a screenplay should be dialog, for a supernatural thriller?
Excellent answer, thank you so much for giving an eloquent and rich reply. It helps get me motivated again with hope on improving the script with rewrites, not to get too down on the first draft. What is cool though is that I can see the scenes, the characters, and more in my head as I write and read my script; not sure if others reading it can see that, but it gets me jazzed to someday make it into a film!