But first, I have to knock this puppy down from its current 119 page length.
This is my pattern. I write the first draft, coming in somewhere around 85 pages. Then I get notes and rewrite like crazy, bringing my draft to maybe 95. Then I get more notes, and eventually it creeps its way up to 120 pages.
Of course, we can reasonably turn in scripts of 120 pages, but I don't want to be the longest script in the pile when I can tell the same story with fewer trees.
On the first draft I write whatever I feel like. My mission is to crank through the script in torpedo-like fashion, writing the story with no concern for verbosity. So by the time I get to 120 pages I have long clever passages that sound pretty cool but take up way too much space. Now I have to go through and kick it back to 117, maybe 116.
So it's a word here, a sentence there. If I take two sentences to describe a person, can I cut it to one? Does my character REALLY need to make a big speech here, or can a determined look do the trick? And as I look for these little bits and pieces to trim down, I can also check for typos.
Good luck, Emily!
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI was just curious if the Expanded Scene Breakdown is part of your writing process.
I read an article about it recently at The Story Department, and I wondered how common it is in the industry.
Here is the piece:
http://thestorydepartment.com/hollywoods-best-kept-secret/
I never heard of it until you just linked it, but I do something similar, I guess. I do a pretty detailed treatment before I start the story in script form, hitting all the major story beats. I also make notes of themes I want to pursue and in a separate file I do character breakdowns.
ReplyDeleteWith this last script I did this process, then wrote the first draft, then decided to do a page one rewrite so I went back and did the treatment all over again.