You’ve been working for months on your latest
script, and it’s almost ready to market. Frankly, you’re just about out of
steam. Of course you are. Screenwriting is hard work – at least if
you’re trying to do it well. But it’s
not all so damn laborious. Here
are ten easy-peasy things you can do that each have a high probability of
improving your masterpiece:
1.
Scan through your script and pick the weakest/least
necessary scene and cut that out. It’s
not hard, just highlight it and press delete.
All of your scenes are equally powerful you say? Funny, I’ve never found that to be the case
in any script I’ve read (professional or amateur, produced or unproduced). Well, in any event, what you are
certain of is that all of your scenes are absolutely necessary for the story to
make sense. My reply to that assertion
is the same: I’ve never seen it, and I’ve read a whole lot of drafts.
2.
Along the same lines, go through your first page
and find a few words you don’t need. Cut
those out. Again, this is easy, and
unless you’re the most merciless self-editor ever to attempt a screenplay,
there are at least several page-one words you don’t need at all.
3.
Scan through your script and cut ten lines of
action.
4.
As you’re doing this, find three lines of
dialogue to remove.
5.
And while you’re at it, think about all the
humorous moments in your story. Be
honest with yourself about which is the weakest and trim that clunker out. (By now you may be seeing a pattern to this
list. It’s all deletion, which is what makes each of these tasks so eminently manageable.)
6.
Think about your characters. Is there a minor character you don’t need at
all? Simply delete that character’s
action and dialogue. If you do actually NEED any of that action and dialogue
for your story to make sense, take one of your more prominent characters and allow
this other character to serve in that capacity.
A substitution like this almost always works. And with almost no effort you’ve just lowered
the budget of your movie and improved its sense of efficiency and coherence.
7.
Do you have a bunch of slug lines that are going
across the entire page? Do they really
need to be that long? I bet you can cut
them back. It makes the page look leaner
and cleaner.
8.
Is any character telling any other character
something we’ve already seen or heard?
If so, out it goes. A line like
this is by definition something you don’t need.
9.
Are any characters saying goodbye at the end of a
scene? Unless it’s an intentionally
emotional parting of ways, you can probably do without it.
10. [I
had a tenth thought, but it really wasn’t necessary, so I took it out.]
There you go.
While your life as a whole – like so many – may be difficult, this part
of it at least should be painless.
