How much actually gets changed in your re-writes?

[The ImagiNation]

I finished a screenplay a few weeks ago and went to re-write, but I only ended up fixing errors and tightening dialouge. There just seemed to be nothing I wanted to cut(or could for that matter) or anything to add.

What exactly gets changed in you re-writes?

[sspunisher]

Unlike some people, I don't claim to be an expert at something that I'm not, but I'll offer my oh so humble non expert opinion.

Either by getting another person's fresh eyes to look at it, or leaving your work alone for a month or so then going back to it, you'll usually always spot something or another to change.

Obviously how much you change all depends on the strength of the original draft, but rehauls aren't that uncommon.

If you're sure the story is fine then don't change it for the sake of having a productive "rewrite session."

Usually there's always a glaring mistake or maybe a better way of developing or introducing something. But if you've done all that and there's no real big changes you want to make, then it's time you get different people to look at it.

[The ImagiNation]

I take what i said back in my first post. I did go back and retype certain things but the main meat of the story(as far as dialouge, characters, locations) all stayed the same.

But I do have a huge epic type script that I feel needs a big overhawl. I wrote it as this big story actions script but I think it would be so much better if I made it smaller and more personal. More of a internal demon.

[sspunisher]

Yea I have a fantasy epic type in the works as well. I'm currently working on the meat of it, having trouble finding a good conflict that fits, but I'm taking it slowly.

[Optimus]

It really depends. If I only change a bit of dialogue here or there, or delete a scene or two for the sake of the story's pace, then I only consider that a "polish."

However, if I go in and write entirely new scenes, change the direction of the story, totally rewrite pivotal scenes, delete entire characters, etc., I consider that a rewrite.

For instance, my latest spec went through about 4 rewrites (one I totally changed the entire 3rd act, another I made key changes to the second, before that I deleted two characters entirely, etc) and countless polishes.

[NikeeGoddess]

what opty said
cept on early drafts i call them "tweaking" the script b/c major rewrites WILL happen; and later drafts (after several rewrites) then i'd use the term "polish".

[triceretops]

Usually, characterization is something I seem to leave lean in a first draft. I do go back in there and beef that up. I'm paranoid that my people are to thinly disguised and it worries me.

Tri

[Lord_Galvatron]

In my case, I did some changes in dialog, rewrote 2 entire scenes and did some corrections. Most of the dialog changes I did affected how I presented my female lead, from being an agresive person to a more subdued personality, which I think works better. I also changed the way I introduced my hero.

It just depends. I read an early script of ALIENS by Cameron, and there is no much diference from that screenplay to the finished movie, the only major change is that instead of Gorman getting a concussion inside the carrier, he was attacked by one of the aliens and the alien "stung" him with its tail, causing paralisis with a "venom". This made the Aiens to be more insect, but I guess he ditched it because it was never shown in the first movie.

[JERETHAL]

I'm writing a screenplay right now about some middle eastern men and women who get makeovers to look American and move to America. They have a home in a residential neighborhood all set up and waiting for their arrival. I set them up in Charleston South Carolina.[Don't know why]

Their mission is to wait to be contacted by the "American" contact and briefed on their mission. They are supposed to plant and detonate stolen, Russian made, suitcase nukes in American cities.

After they arrive in Charleston, they meet their American neighbors. The neighbors are a man and woman with two teen-age kids and a young daughter about 5 yers old. The neighbors befriend them and the terrorists have second thoughts about killing American "Civilians".

The terrorists meet their American contacts , who turn out to be Government and Defense Dept. traitors who just want to start a bigger war to make themselves richer and more powerful. The terrorists have a change of heart and .................................................. ......................................

I'm stuck like ****! Do they destroy the nukes? Turn them over to scientists?
Send them home? Kill the masterminds? Confess their mission to their neighbor friends? I wrote the end several times and can't find the answer. It took all my effort to make them "love" their new neighbors. Maybe I'm just fried in the membrane? Any suggestions for the end of "LOVE THY NEIGHBOR"?

[preyer]

let me get this straight: you send a script in which they say they want. then they tell you to rewrite it without telling you what's wrong with it? hey, can't wait to get started in this business!

not meaning to veer off course, but modern epic films, well, suck. beyond visual appeal, i find no redeeming value in 'alexander' or 'troy', the former a meandering mess and the latter straying too far from the iliad than it probably should have. the upshot is both were boring with awful characters impossible to connect with. if you're going to make an epic, for gawd's sake familiarize yourself with homer, will ya? lol. (by 'you' i mean h'wood, not you guys here.) LOTR worked *only* because of the characters. 'gladiator' (a great movie, imo) worked because of the characterization derived out the pain a man feels so strongly for his murdered loved ones that he blows snot out his nose.

epics... tricky, tricky. always they want to show off their CG f/x capabilities at the risk of bruising the story.

[scripter1]

my VERY first script, has gone through some major rewrites.
It started out as a novel with tons of detail, facts, history, tidbits.
Then I got into screenwriting and toned it down.

I didn't draft it out, other then the novel version, I just wrote it flat out.
After a bunch of studying the craft and reading scripts I went back and totally deleted my secondary character who was to be the "Russell Crowe" type romantic lead.
Just cut that puppy right out of there because, it wasn't working. It split the story into two incompatible parts.
I rewrote the script so that now one of the antagonists who is much more involved in the plot and theme of the story becomes the love interest.

I've twisted my story every which way trying to get my main character to arc but none of it feels natural to her character. Each new idea, while a good way to create arc in and of itself, doesn't mesh with the needs of the rest of the story. So, I think I will go back to what my heart says works.

Other then that one script I don't really find myself rewriting that much.
Now I plan things out a bit more, think them through in my head, keep notes and fully develop most of the story in a notebook first.

I do a lot of polishing. Add in in details, taking out fluff, honing down dialog and shortening up scenes.

[Boo_Radley]

It depends, really. If it's something I just sit down and start writing, you can bet your bottom dollar it'll go through some major changes during the rewrites. I'll have loose ends I didn't tie up, or I'll have contradictions in character or story, or it'll totally change genres, etc.

But, since I'm not a huge fan of rewriting, this is probably why I tend to just plan and plot my stories in my head for months before putting them on paper. That way, everything's pretty well organized and I can just spill it out onto paper. For me, planning the story in my head for a long amount of time before actually writing it just makes for an easier rewriting process -- since the story's done and everything's tied up, all I need to worry about are the cosmetic things such as streamlining the dialogue, tweaking the action/descriptions...just making things pretty.

But, I'm not a professional screenwriter, so I don't presume to say my method is the way it should be done.
:)