In November of last year, I embarked on the difficult journey of writing my first feature length screenplay. I was taking part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), but instead of writing a 50,000 word novel, I set the goal of writing a 90 page horror comedy called HAG. I completed my goal and then some, finishing my 102 page script on December 3, 2019. Since then, it has sat undisturbed in a folder on my desktop. I’ve been too afraid to read it, not wanting to face the truth that I’m not as good of a writer as I thought I was. Today, however, I faced my fears and opened that completed first draft for the first time. I brewed some tea, sat down on my couch, and began reading… Here’s what I learned.
Right off the bat, I realized it wasn’t nearly as awful as I had convinced myself it would be. In fact, for the most part I really enjoyed it. I’m far enough removed from the process that I couldn’t remember every beat of the story so there were moments where I lost myself in the script and actually enjoyed reading it. That being said, many of the problems I thought would be there were present. It got rough towards the end, likely because I was racing to meet my self-imposed deadline. There were elements that just didn’t work on the page like I had intended. Some of the jokes fell flat. The theme isn’t fully developed. And there were many threads of the story that go uncompleted. All in all, though, I’m quite proud of what I created and know that with more work it could be something that I would one day be happy to show to someone else. While reading, I took some notes. Not on the script itself, but on things I learned from writing it.
1. Start Writing.
Participating in NaNoWriMo was the best thing I could have done for this script. I had been working on the outline for a few months ahead of November, but committing myself to writing 3 pages a day for 30 days was the motivation I needed to see the project through. I would have struggled greatly without my outline, but nothing helped me see my story more clearly than getting it all out on the page. There are times when you feel like you’re not ready to begin or that you need to figure every beat out ahead of time, but the truth is that you just need to start. Nothing works as well as you want it to in an outline, but it’s impossible to see these problems without first writing them. Now, I have a complete document that I can look at more critically and rework to be something much greater than it was before.
2. Be Open to Change.
That being said, there were many times when I ignored my outline completely and went off in directions I had never expected to go. In fact, most of the ending I changed on the fly while in the moment. The ending isn’t perfect, and maybe not even better than the one I had planned to write, but it feels more true to the story I actually ended up writing. Sometimes you want to push your characters to do things that progress the plot, but they have different intentions all together. It’s good to listen to your characters during these times and let them go where they need to go. If you allow yourself freedom to explore different options and realities, you open yourself up to discovering things you might never had discovered otherwise. Be true to the story you’re trying to tell and it will feel more natural and real than if you stick rigidly to your original plan.
3. Let the Theme Find YOU!
When I began working on my outline, I had a weak theme for what the story was about. I was writing about a young woman escaping the pressure of her father and her hometown. When I actually finished the script, I realized I had written a story that was more about finding meaningful relationships in unlikely situations. It’s good to go in with a plan for what you want to say, but you’ll soon learn that the story has it’s own interpretation of what it’s about. When you find this new theme, it’s probably best to double down on it in the rewrites. You can force yourself to write about something else, but it will never feel as right as what you discover along the way.
4. Keep Your Tone in Mind ALL THE TIME.
This was a kick in the balls for me today. I thought my script was a solid blend of horror, comedy, and drama but boy was I wrong. It’s okay to mix genres and tones, but I realized that I was forcing comedy in places it didn’t belong. Many of the jokes I had written just didn’t land. I don’t think this is because they weren’t funny jokes, but rather because they distracted from the true tone of the movie. One of the biggest jobs of the writer or director is to convey a feeling for the audience. You can subvert expectations, trick them into feeling one thing when they should feel another, or even confuse them, but you should never make it difficult for them to know how they’re supposed to feel. You just need to make them feel. And when your tone is all over the place, they’ll never know for sure. This is maybe the biggest thing I learned reading my script today. I need to be more aware of what state of mind my reader or audience is in at the beginning and end of each scene and move forward accordingly.
5. Don’t Worry About Clichés; They’re There for a Reason.
I’m super conscious of avoiding clichés in my writing. Or at least I try to be… I was surprised to see how many clichés showed up in this first draft, unintentionally. Sometimes you find yourself stuck in a corner and there’s only one way out. Other times you have a character that is a little too similar to other characters. And before you know it, cliché. This is okay, try not to sweat about it. Clichés are cliché for a reason – they work. The goal shouldn’t be to avoid them, but to make them work for you. I think I probably wrote some cliché lines of dialogue because I was in a hurry and not thinking clearly. Those kinds of mistakes are easy to fix. The tricky ones are the times where your characters do something familiar or react in a way we’ve seen a hundred times. Do your best to find an alternative, but if you really can’t, try to put your own spin on it and make it yours. Make it unique.
6. You’re Not Writing A Book!
This is probably a very common mistake among novice screenwriters, but more experienced readers know that white space is your friend. A page of your screenplay should be pleasing to look at. You want to avoid having massive blocks of text as well as long strings of uninterrupted dialogue. Some of my most important and intense scenes were written almost in prose. I thought I was setting the tone, by adding flowery descriptions but I was actually just making it boring. No one wants to read that.
Break.
It.
Up.
There are no rules to this. Have fun with it and make it flow according to the pace and tone of your story.
Fun scenes should be quick and exciting!
Intense scenes should
Bring your audience
Closer.
If you get bored reading what you wrote, so will your audience. Entertain them.
7. Give it Some Space.
I’m so thankful that I put my script away for 6 months before reading it. This allowed me to distance myself from the project and view it again with clear eyes. I had forgotten much of the story and was able to be more critical of what worked and what did not. Had I attempted to critique it – or God forbid, rewrite it! – right away, it would have been a total disaster. You get married to a project like this and need to divorce yourself from it before you can fix it. Put it away. Forget about it. Write something else. This is the best advice I can give when rewriting a script. Take your time.
I hope this helps inspire you to write your project and then write it again! I have no intention of rewriting this particular script right now, because I’m right in the thick of a new one, but it was a good learning experience for me to read it back and think critically of what was good and what was shit. I think I’m a better writer because of it.