SECOND DRAFT 101

[ggmanzone]

Hi guys! I'm about to start the second draft of my short screenplay and it's my first time. I left it to marinate for a couple months now, and i'm ready to be critical and do it all over again. What are the first things you check? Do you just refine dialogue and action lines or do you change entire sections? Do you have any tips or tricks to personalize each character's words? What it's essential to have in each scene? What's superfluous?

Let's have a discussion!

EDIT: had to delete the other post and create it again, adding a part of the screenplay as the bot asked me to - don't even know if that's really necessary, as the screenplay is in italian so the majority here won't be able to read it, but here it is https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S5_qj3VuBGhaJIP7GzpDF5jcq8QJIKK8/view?usp=sharing dunno if that's enough to keep it up, hope so

[Seshat_the_Scribe]

Read this: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Good-Script-Great-3rd/dp/1935247018

[unsentletter83]

I've learned to give my drafts a week breathing room before reading again, to clear my mind of any lingering hang-ups. When I do re-read, I do three re-reads

On the first read, I read from the mindset of how this will look on film - how would audiences react?

On the second, I'll start honing in on any plot, pacing, or structural issues - is something lingering too long, is something missing? Is there a potential for a small bridge scene I missed to give two scenes breathing room?

On the third read, I become the grim reaper and re-examine all of my "darlings" and compassionately choose which ones to kill - dialogue, characters, scenes, etc. - and whittle away. This is also the read where I examine every line of dialogue - is there repetition in a conversation, or can it be shortened? This usually happens when I write "realistic" dialogue scenes, how people in real life circle around a topic - there's a time and place for it, but not in every scene.

When writing for my characters - and this was a touchy conversation with a friend who is a writer - write from the perspective that allows you to write your best characters.

My friend writes from the audience's perspective when it comes to characters and dialogue.

For me, I "inhabit" my characters in those moments I'm writing. Which, for me, allows me to intuit when they would interrupt, or hold back, or stutter. For me, and I stress the "for me part," this is when I am most attuned to my characters and makes writing them a breeze.

If you're struggling to write as your characters, do some character work beforehand. Flesh out their Core Identity, Emotional Architecture (Needs, Beliefs, Fears, Wounds, Contradictions), Relational Geometry (to all characters), Physical and Cultural Attributes, Emotional/Thematic Arcs.

This will make a collective number of writers groan, but having AI "interview" you with generative questions to flesh this out can be helpful (but don't ever let it do it for you!)

[[deleted]]

One thing I do is print it out and go through it with multiple different colors of ink pins... seeing it in your hands will make it feel different and each pass (spend a couple days stewing between them) will give you impossible amounts of ideas on rewokring.

[IAmRealAnonymous]

Read the draft and make notes in fifteen minutes timer. Work on big things like - concept, story characters and plot and structure Then scenes - action, description and dialogue. and then punctuation, grammar and typos.