Screenwriting : Rewriting by Becca-Chris M

Leave it for a month. Rest and come back to it. After a break, I read it and highlight what's great/cool, what's not great and needs strength, then what needs to be cut. I always used a text to speech app because my eyes know the story, but when I listen to it, my ears pick up on, a lot more errors. Voice Dream Reader on an iSheep device is a great tool (Voice Dream Writer is crap). Grammerly.com can be useful too.

Checking our Grammerly. Thanks, Robert!

Kill your darlings: If it's not working for the story it doesn't matter how cool the scene is, how much you love the character, what a nifty turn of phrase you've laid down, it has got to go. Make sure you read your dialogue aloud, if it's garbled or awkward for you it'll be the same for your actors. I don't leave scripts for anything close to a month but I always leave a first draft to percolate for a few days. And remember what Hemingway said, "The first draft of anything is sh*t." =) Good luck!

There's an online script reader at www.readthrough.com that lets you use computer voice (as does one of the features of Final Draft), but it also has access to real voice actors - for free...

Becca: Anthony's counsel is good. Best to use FD or readthrough a couple of times, which helps eliminate omitted words and ferrets out clumsy dialogue that Terri spoke about. Part of my editing also process includes a critical and eye and ear looking to remove anything that doesn't add value to the screenplay.

Good input, everyone, thanks! My co-writer and I read our scripts aloud with each other. For those of you who recommended screenwriting software such as Read Through, do you feel it's vital, even when you are reading the script aloud with another?

If you have a partner on a project, no.

Honestly I don't know what it's even necessary if you don't have a partner - at least not for me. I just jump around my office reading all the parts. =D But now that it's been mentioned, might be fun to have my producing partner, who's not a writer, "perform" it with me. She'll likely have something to say about that!

The way I rewrite is add/delete/expand scenes where needed. Then go through and work on the action only. Then go back and work on dialogue only. Once that is done go back through for a final polish.

Hey, BECCA , our very own RB, just covered his own rewriting techniques , today on his monthly webinar. It was 3 hours long as always, but here is what he said. First - try that your first draft is not a mess. 2. Make sure is no more than 125 pages. " I kinda know my starting point, my end point. 3. I don't do nothing for a couple of weeks, then I print out the script, read it while making notes on the pages, then I sit down in front of the computer and start on page one.". Hope you are not upset by me doing these, RB, or Becca. The free webinar if you or anyone didn't get a chance to attend, should be up OnDemand soon. I personally follow the same technique as RB, except that I don't print the screenplay, so I hope this helps you as well, my dear BECCA. Merry Christmas.

I like to do a series of rewrites that each focus on one aspect, so that I focus on that one thing. I do a rewrite for each character to make sure their voice and actions are consistent. I always start with a rewrite for story and structure so that I'm not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

1) Now that you know the story. Pick the most interesting character and tell it from his/her point of view. 2) If you can't show whats happening, or have a character explain it in a sentence or two, cut it out. 3) If a scene wasn't working or suspenseful enough, have some thing totally unexpected happen, even if it didn't happen in the previous draft. Remember - Villains are people too. Even Darth Vader was someone's son once!

Thanks, Jorge. I hope you had a Merry Christmas! Our Savior was born!

Anthony- very interesting #2! Going to share that with my co-writer. Thanks for the input!

Writing a one-pager is a good strategy and not a waste of time because you will likely need to do that anyway. If I am really struggling with a one pager, I know that I have to look at structure. If not, then I rate each scene (1-10). I look for "talking head scenes" and boring scenes - I ask myself how I can convey that scene in a more entertaining way. Good luck and don't be afraid to really change things - and don't forget to "save as" in case you go crazy and wreck everything - I've actually done that :)