Tom P's Dos and Don'ts of Rewriting

I’m a believer in bad first drafts. A first draft is your time to vomit anything and everything out on the page. Get it out, all out, without stopping. Then only step back and take a look.

Don’t panic. I’m also a believer in loglines, beat sheets and treatments, et al. Even with first drafts. All are incredibly helpful. All can keep your first draft from being horrendous and help your first draft instead to be, well, bad. As it should be.

Trying to write a perfect or even good first draft is a waste of time. Until you get it finished and can look at the entire script/story in toto, there is so much you cannot know. I’ve killed myself writing and rewriting to perfection a scene on a first draft, only to get to the end of the screenplay and realize the scene was superfluous. What a waste of a few days. Most of the time you will not know what works or doesn’t work, what is needed or needs to be cut, until you get to the end of your first draft. Finish it, take a break and, steeling yourself for the horror, read your first draft. It’s a painful experience, sure. But incredibly illuminating.

Now comes the real work. So without further ado, click below to begin my “DO’s and DON’Ts” when rewriting your screenplay: