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When you're just starting out as a screenwriter or writer/director, the tendency is to want to start making a movie right away whether you have a well-tuned script or not. You're like a kid who just wants to dive into the water and start swimming-even if you don't know how to swim.
Few if any new screenwriters like to rewrite. Maybe you'll change a word here and there or a line. But the idea of actually writing a first draft and completely rethinking and retooling it is for the most part, repugnant.
You have to get past that kind of thinking.
That's not to say that your first draft won't be pretty good. It may very well be "pretty" good. Or OK. Or workmanlike. Or not bad.
But chances are it won't be just good.
And I'd bet money that it wont be "very" good and it certainly won't be terrific. There might be exceptions. There might be some screenwriters who have spent so much time mentally preparing to write their script that it comes out "almost there."
But these aren't the norm.
The norm is that most first drafts either suck or are in good enough shape to merit a rewrite (or several).
The sooner you realize that everything you write will be revised and revised and revised, the better off you'll be. And the longer you live in the fantasy world that all you have to do is a first draft and maybe adjust a couple of things, you will not grow.
And being a screenwriter and filmmaker is all about growing and getting better and better. |