They call it the vomit draft for a reason. Like it or not, you will never get everything right on the first try with a script. Heck, it's unlikely you will, even on the second or third. A good writer gives themselves the breathing room to not only create, but to make mistakes and learn from them. You have to develop a critical eye and know what makes a compelling story tick. How do you find three-dimensional and complex characters?
Cracking dialogue?
Deep and resonant themes, raised through engaging conflict?
Rewrites.
Understandably this can be a hard pill to swallow for newer writers: if you're trying to juggle a day job, the thought of your ticket to fame and fortune being a long haul is unappealing. You want success and you want it now, so why can't your script be gold the first time?
Because writing, like art and science, is an experiment.
IS THERE A WAY TO SPEED IT UP?
Depends on what you mean - if you want to write quicker, be more of a free wheeler (or pantser, as in 'by the seat of your pants') in your method.
If what you mean is 'can I cut crap sooner?', that's a tougher question. There are some things you can try, but so much of writing is, as stated, trial and error. You'll never be able to get everything fixed the first time through, because it's the first time. Something that looks great in an outline can utterly collapse in script form. I speak from experience. It's not worth becoming one of these paranoid 'I must get it all done now now now' writers because you will never get work out there with that mindset.
SO WHAT THEN?
Here are some things you can do to help your first draft writing be less painful and speedier.
- Read lots of scripts: The more you read, the quicker you'll be able to sniff out crap in your own material. In fact, I'd argue these will help you more than watching the movies, as you will see how their tricks were done. Like a magician, you can't do a trick if you don't know how it was done. Furthermore, don't just read the Oscar winners: read junk! You'd be surprised how much you can gleam from reading the three terrible scripts for Tim Burton's Superman Lives, or two different drafts of the Will Smith (topical reference?) bomb Wild Wild West.
- Get a proofread and break down: whether it's from a writer's group or a script editing service (as always, shop around and get a good deal), get a second pair of eyeballs on your treatment or beat sheet. They will give you notes, and from there, develop a more detailed feedback breakdown.
- Scene by scene brainstorm: A handy tip from William M. Akers (New Adventures of Superman) in his book Your Screenplay Sucks!: 100 Ways to Make it Great. Take each scene in your outline and give them a whole page, write a basic description of what it does and then the rest of the page is just brainstorming ideas to make it better. Don't worry about spelling or grammar or anything, just splurge everything and anything.
- Space it out: A classic tip I've shared before, but one I will bring up again. Don't do too many rewrites on the same
project back-to-back, and try to shake up the genres you write in. You might find
some inspiration in working on a horror and then a comedy versus two
horrors consecutively. With a treatment, because it's not a script and so you're looking at it from an 'outside' perspective, I think this reset is important to help clear your thoughts and see the weak points.
Also, attitude is important: acting bigheaded and defensive when people do comment on your work, or even when you yourself go over the idea and dismiss any possible issue, is unhelpful. There's a time to defend your work, and there's a time to be open and experiment. If you want a first draft that will be worth anything in the long run, the latter is what you need to do.
SHOULD I GAMBLE ANYWAY ON A SUBMISSION?
It's not worth it - yes there are those one-in-a-million stories like John Hughes writing Ferris Bueller in days, or how fast Stallone wrote Rocky, but those films were in constant refinement and had the advantadge of, y'know, money and studio support. You're on your own so you have to adjust your expectations. It's not worth blowing a potentially great contact or contest shot by submitting something that's not ready.
WHAT IF IT DOESN'T WORK AFTER I'M DONE DRAFTING? LIKE AT ALL?
It happens, and it's nothing to be ashamed of.
It's not.
Sometimes, ideas don't generate the stories we think they can and that's fine. So as long as you're not promising it to anyone, this isn't a big worry. You didn't fail, it just means that idea wasn't right or you didn't think through or break it down enough. Don't let one mistake throw you off - you can always get back up and start fresh. That's what is so great about writing: you can always start over. Making a mistake isn't the problem: not learning from it is.
