What comes after the first draft? (checklist)

Finished 1st draft of my first-ever screenplay on saturday (it's a coming of age adventure genre.

However, it's only 90 minutes long. I'll try & add to get it around 110.

Now the question. After the first draft, do you have a checklist?

If so, what's on it?

Here's one I'm developing:

1. Obviously, grammar, structure etc
2. Take out redundancies and unnecessary verbiage
3. Ensure consistency in naming characters and things
4. Capitalizae the sounds for the sound effect people
5. Ask yoursealf, would my character really say or do that
6. Does the scene add to the drama, plot and move the story forward; i.e., is it really necessary?
7. Are you describing the scene visually, as you are supposed to do in screenplays, not using thoughts as for book writing

I'm sure there'll be more added to my checklist as I go over my 3rd, 4th, and 5th drafts.

Feel free to add more to the checklist or comment.

after the first draft

there are no checklist rules. you can do several things not listed on your list.

i suggest you invest in some screenwriting books and absorb them before you do any rewriting - some:
1 - The Screenwriter's Workbook - Syd Field
2 - The Screenwriter's Problem Solver - Syd Field
3 - Anatomy of a Screenplay
4 - Story - Robert McKee
5 - Creating Unforgettable Characters - Linda Seger

Read a bunch of produced screenplays too.

you should do all this before rewriting this one
and
you can start a 2nd script before you go back to this one too.

write on!

Re: after the first draft

Set it aside for a week or two.
Get some distance from the story.
Follow Nikee's advice.
Print it out and read it OUT LOUD.
You'll be surprised how the dialog actually SOUNDS.

Sounds like a pretty good checklist to me.
You're off to a great start!

Re: after the first draft

These things should all come as naturally to you as breathing. If you have to come up with a checklist, it means what you need to do is write more. MUCH more. And keep writing. You don't even have a first draft yet, really. Just a glimmer of what might be.

Re: after the first draft

A checklist isn't a flaw. Somepeople love to make lists. It's just a personal preference.

Re: after the first draft

"You don't even have a first draft yet, really. Just a glimmer of what might be."

whatevs. its a first draft. first drafts always need work and are usually very rough and this cat has acknowledged that. dunno why some peeps need to put down what other peeps have worked hard to finish. :nerd

keep track

notice - it was only "pathetic" who put you down

Re: keep track

Scripter 1 writes:

Set it aside for a week or two.
Get some distance from the story.
Follow Nikee's advice.
Print it out and read it OUT LOUD.
You'll be surprised how the dialog actually SOUNDS.
----------------------------

Esp. grateful for this advice.

Yes, Nikee I'm putting it aside to read some screenplays (incl. one mentioned on this forum, the Butterfly Effect). Hopefully will cut down on some of my novice questions.

I'm changing my script from what probably is R rated to PG-R, toning down the vocabulary and making the love scenes more "we don't have to see it all to know what is happening"--but still just as exciting.

A couple more things I'm adding to my checklist of "must do" (yes, I'm one of them annoying people who does everything by checklist--esp helpful in doing things I might forget)

8. Is the flow adding to the anticipation and suspense with the outcome uncertain and the obstacles seemingly insurmountable?

9. Am I getting in and out of scenes quickly enough?

10. Since my screenplay is a time period piece, are the dialog and things typical of that era (or even exist) (today, with technology moving so quickly, things can quickly become outdated--brand names etc

11. Are the stakes being raised high enough throughout the script?

12. Read the script out loud (as was suggested by Scripter1).

BTW, I find it interesting that Nikee mentions I can begin another screenplay. My mind has been exploding w/ideas and this may be a pleasant diversion from the mind-numbing job of doing draft after draft of my screenplay.

multiple screenplays

i'm always focused on working on one script at a time but, because i have others that always need work; and b/c ideas of improvement can come at you at any time... i will jot down those ideas as they come esp. if they're for a script that i'm not currently working on. then when my focused is moved to that script, i usu have several notes to work with.

writing is rewriting - your script is never completed until it is sold....and then someone else will probably rip it to shreds :lol oh well...

write on!

FJ,

I noticed that a spelling check is not on the list of things to do after the first draft. Is that because you don't think it's important or is it because you are unaware of many spelling errors in your posts?

finish your scripts

After you finish your first draft, you'll probably have quite a bit if reading, editing, and then rewriting to do.

But ultimately, you need to get to a point where your script is finished and where you will not make any more changes until it is sold.

Obsess with one script for too long, and you simply waste time that could have been spent on other scripts.

Scripts which are rejected by some producers may be accepted by others.

Only rewrite or edit if their are flaws which need addressing (they will be there in first drafts, especially for newbies)

Re: finish your scripts

And remember, most scripts, even after being accepted, go through a series of rewrites, sometimes even into production.

Nothing is set in stone. Get to as good as you believe it can be, then let it go.

Re: finish your scripts

Really? You set your first draft down (cuz, that's what you have. A 1st draft), and forget about it for at least 4 weeks. Go work on something else. Then you come back to it and read it all at once, with no red pen in your hand, then you read it again, with that pen in your hand. You try to be honest with yourself about structure and plot and character and all that jazz. Then you fix what you think is wrong (and there will be A LOT wrong with it, bro, that's just the way it is). And you proof, proof, proof the f*ck out of that thing.

Then you send it to some friends who hopefully also write, for their feedback. Like I said, it's a first draft of a first script, so you it will probably not be so great, you hear what I'm sayin? But that's okay, because we've all been there. A script can take so many drafts to get right. Six, seven, even ten drafts.

Start thinkin of your next one, and congrats on makin' it this far.:thumbs

Re: finish your scripts

Setting the script aside is some of the best advice. When one is finished with a script, which they presumably have been spending some time on, they feel a certain bond with it, and most feel it's unbelievably good and blada blada bla. Set it aside. When you take a look at it, it should feel like a new script...much of the time, you won't remember exactly how it goes. This is the exciting part. It is the part where you can be most critical and eliminate parts that don't work. Oh...and Stephen King does it...

Checklist

I think this is a good idea that many new writers ought to implement. Nothing creative is second nature until you've done it over and over.
Practice makes perfect.
And a list can be really helpful.
At least he is thinking of things that could be wrong. That puts him wayyyy ahead of many new writers who think the first draft is the best thing ever written.

I think spelling was probably one of the etc's. Such a common mistake though that it might be wiser to state it.

When you set aside the script go ahead and start work on a second. Your skills improve as you try to tell other stories and encounter different problems.

If the margins are set right, you've got a reasonable story that anybody can follow, there are characters who have things to do and have dialog, and it's between 70 to 150 pages
IT'S A FIRST DRAFT!!!.
Don't let anyone kid you. You've achieved something.
Yeah, it will need a lot of work, but don't sell yourself short.
Pat yourself on the back, set it aside, start on another one and go back in a week or two.

Happy Writing.

When I slammed the first Underwood key against an off-white sheet of paper stained with coffee and gunshot residue, I began a checklist. I love checklists. They help my scattershot cortex control my characters who tend to talk too much about their miserable lives. I would love to share my whole list, but that would take forever. Here are seven highlights, assuming you spell check and know the page layout of a proper screenplay.

1. Writing is rewriting.
2. Do NOT put away your first draft for more than one night of wine and dalliance. Creativity isn't always there when you need it -- if you've got it now, keep it by putting the keys to the grindstone. (Caution: mixed metaphor.)
3. Life is when things happen one after the other. Screenplay structure is when things happen because of the other.
4. Put conflict and tension in every scene.
5. Every classic antagonist has one of only TWO motivations: greed or power.
6. "The four most important elements of screenwriting are: theme, story, characterization, and structure." --Lew Hunter
7. A character is defined by his or her choices, which lead to sacrifice. What is his or her moral dilemma?

As a former reader for Paramount and Fox, I kept a secret checklist of mistakes that screenwriters made, comments that development execs made about certain scenes (for example: "I hate sitting down talking scenes." He was referring to bar/restaurant scenes.), and stuff that agents and managers said. I'm trying to put it all in an e-book and pass it on to new writers.

So, good luck, and if I can help in any way, drop me a line, I'll do what I can.

John

Rewrite Check Lists

Hi,
Here are a bunch of Check Lists.
#1 is a Readers Check List. Very interesting/
#2 and 5 are excellent.

Whoever said you don't need a Check List must have these memorized - - -but I doubt it.

#1 SPECTACLE PICTURES Checklist
Site link removed per request of other site's Webmaster

#2 Handy Checklist for Script Assessment
www.robinkelly.btinternet.../check.htm

#3 A Pre-Submission Checklist
www.hollywoodnet.com/Trot...klist.html

#4 SCREENWRITING BY NUMBERS
A Screenwriter's Checklist
www.geocities.com/mishaca...t0002.html

#5 SCREENWRITERS’ CHECKLIST
www.mtsn.org.uk/staff/sta...cklist.htm


Have fun writing,
Phil

First draft

Just read this from EW on George Lucas and Star Wars. I think there's great insight in the quote:


GL: ... I'm a terrible writer, you know, but because I'm directing it, I don't have to write it.... What Francis [Coppola] taught me about writing script is, when you are writing your first [draft], race through it as fast as you can. I can get it done in two or three weeks. And when you're writing that first script, never go back and read the page before. If you go back and start refining it, you'll have a very refined 15 pages but it will never go anywhere. And you really don't know what the first 15 should be until you know what the end is.