When you type FADE OUT, FADE TO BLACK, or THE END on your first draft of a script, by all means, celebrate. That’s a huge accomplishment. You’ve just done what most beginning screenwriters never do: you finished a script.
But the writing isn’t done yet. You shouldn’t be sharing that first draft with anyone. You certainly shouldn’t be submitting it anywhere. You’ve made an amazing leap forward in your screenwriting. But now it’s time for the real work, where the real script starts to shine. This happens in the rewrite.
What Is a Rewrite?
A script rewrite is where you go back to your completed first draft and do all you can to make it better.
Hollywood doesn’t have time for average. Good isn’t enough. A script being great shows potential. But you always want to strive to get your script to that coveted amazing level.
You accomplish this through the rewriting process. This is when you:
- Make the script the best read possible.
- Patch up any plot holes that may have gone unnoticed.
- Streamline everything from the story to the character arcs, and even the dialogue.
- Take care of the aesthetics, as far as grammar, punctuation, and format.
- Make tough choices to trim the fat away so you’re left with a lean script ready for Hollywood to devour.
Most directors agree that their movies don’t really come to life during production: it’s in the editing room where everything truly comes together. Screenwriting is the same way. The rewriting is where your cinematic story truly comes to life.
Here we offer a beginner’s guide to the rewrite process, with building blocks you can revisit every time you sit down to rewrite a script.
Be Prepared Before You Even Write the First Draft
Rewriting starts before you type a single word of your script. Preparation, also known in the industry as front-end work, is key to making the eventual rewriting phase much, much easier.
Screenplays aren’t like novels. You have a limited amount of pages because of the general length confinement of a movie. There are no scripts that are hundreds of pages long, at least not for beginners. Why? Because the average film is between one-and-a-half to two hours long. The general page barometer to meet that screen time is 90-120 pages, with the sweet spot falling somewhere in between.
So you need to go into the writing process prepared. You need to know:
- The core concept
- The setting
- The genre
- The characters
- The tone
- The conflicts
- The twists and turns
- The beginning, middle, and end.
Be prepared. Write an excellent outline or beat sheet that covers the general scene structure from Point A to Point Z and nearly everything in between, while also leaving some room for discovery.
Be sure to visualize the majority of your script before you type a single word, all to avoid writer’s block and the threat of being forced to stare at that blinking cursor because you didn’t take the time to see the visual or scene in your head.
If you go in prepared, you’ll save days upon days, weeks upon weeks, and sometimes months upon months of rewriting.
Rewrite As You Go During the First Draft
This is a pro tip. When you’re under contract, you usually only have one to three (tops) months to finish the script. There’s no time for long rewrite timelines. Most pro contracts offer only two weeks for rewrites, so this is where it becomes integral to rewrite as you go. You can write more effectively if you streamline your process and add rewriting to each and every one of your writing sessions.
Here’s a quick breakdown to accomplish that effectively.
- Write ten pages for your first writing session.
- For your next writing session, read and tweak those first ten pages, and then write the next ten pages.
- For your third writing session, read and tweak those now-first twenty pages, and then write the next ten.
- For your fourth writing session, read and tweak the thirty pages you now have, and then continue on
- through the first forty pages.
- Rinse and repeat this until you get to the end of the script.
If you follow the ten-page suggestion, you could have a one hundred-page first draft done within ten writing sessions.
Why does this work? By the time you are done with the script, you’ll have more of a strong second or third draft because you’ve been rewriting as you go. This process helps you:
- Stay consistent with tone, pacing, etc.
- Streamline your pages.
- Handle basic grammar and spelling checks with more ease.
- Shore up any minor or major plotholes.
- Foreshadow twists and turns more effectively.
- Pepper your script to spice it up for the reader.
Rewriting as you go means less rewriting after you’re “done.”
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Here’s the actual first step before you start rewriting: taking a vacation away from the script to get some distance and clarity.
You’ve just spent weeks or months writing your script and laboring over the details to get it done. You need a break. Take a week or two off from the screenplay, and even screenwriting as a whole.
- Don’t think about the script.
- Don’t share the script with anyone.
- Don’t start any other script.
Then, when time has passed, open your script and read it cover-to-cover, not as the screenwriter who wrote it, but as a script reader tasked with experiencing the story and characters.
You’ll be shocked at what stands out far more clearly than what you remembered. And we’re talking about the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between.
- You’ll see the glaring plot holes.
- You’ll notice the smaller plot holes that can be easily fixed.
- You’ll see the annoying grammar and spelling errors you overlooked.
- You’ll see the overly-long scenes and dialogue that need to be trimmed.
- You’ll see inconsistencies in story, plot, and character.
But, you’ll also see the things you did right.
Reading your script as a script reader allows you to see it through a different lens. If you can do so with the most objective eye possible, you’ll be able to more easily rewrite yourself.
Being as objective as possible towards your own work is a screenwriting superpower that most screenwriters don’t attain until much later in their screenwriting journey. Resist the urge to start cutting or tweaking on that first read. You’re there to observe, not react.
Kill Your Darlings
You’re going to have to make some major sacrifices in your script to get the page count down, streamline your story, better your characters, enhance the conflict, cut down your dialogue, cut out exposition that’s not cinematic, etc.
- You may have sequences or scenes that you love, but need to go.
- You may have some amazing moments that are very well written and stand out in a positive way, but don’t fit in the big picture of things.
- You may have characters that you adore, but need to be cut to streamline the story.
Directors have to edit completed scenes out for their final cut: scenes that they love, and scenes that took days to shoot. In turn, screenwriters have to do the very same thing, albeit with the benefit of not having hours, days, and weeks of footage shot and edited.
It’s all about what serves the story at hand.
Some of your best scenes emerge not from additions, but from trimming them down to the core for all to see, and sometimes to remove them so your other scene can shine brighter.
Final Proofing and Polishing
When your scenes are solid, the pacing is great, the holes are gone, and the story, characters, and dialogue are the best they can be, it’s now time for the final proofing. It’s time to polish your script so it shines as bright as possible.
Try to run three proofreading reads:
- Sit alone, no distractions. Read the script from beginning to end and try to catch all typos, format hiccups, and spelling errors.
- Do a dialogue read where you read the dialogue aloud. If it sounds clunky or repetitive, rewrite it or get rid of it.
- Do one last read to once again experience the script as a reader and audience member as the story plays in your mind’s eyes.
Seek Out Some Feedback or Notes
Getting fresh and more objective eyes on your script can make a world of difference. The need to do this will change as you grow as a screenwriter. You should never be overly reliant on other people’s opinions. However, when you’re first starting out, getting constructive criticism and genuine reactions to your script can give you the notes you need to write the best draft possible.
- Have a screenwriting peer read the script and offer you notes.
- Choose a movie loving friend who you trust to experience your script as an audience member.
- Send your script to a script consultant who has had experience in Hollywood offices, and have them give you the notes they would give to Hollywood writers.
- Send your script to any industry contacts you may have, asking them for their valuable thoughts.
- Test the waters by submitting your script to major script contests and fellowships, and take advantage of any additional notes packages they may offer.
When you gather any feedback or notes, read them and consider everything while knowing that you are under no obligation to apply anything. But the key thing is to use this part of the process to gauge what’s working, what’s not, and what elements of your script could be better.
The rewriting process is vital to the success of any screenplay. Embrace it, don’t fear it. The rewriting process is where your script gets even better and better!