Tags
character, draft, edit, film, Screenwriting, scriptwriting, story, TV, writing
Here’s a tip that will work for just about every script, novel, short story, short film, movie or TV series.
You’ve just finished your draft. The story’s more or less there. But something’s not quite right. You look at it and you don’t know where to start editing. It’s not ready to send out to a professional script reviewer. It needs work – but what? And where?
Let me tell you in just a few short words. I don’t even have to read your script. I just know:
Cut the start
The opening is too long. You take too long to get into the story. Too many scenes before you establish the characters. Too many things are there to “set up” things that happen later.
How do I know? Because everyone does the same. Beginners and experienced. The difference is that the experienced writers know it and deal with it.
Get into it
Read through your script until you find where your story really starts. Not the bits you think you need to put in – where itΒ actually gets going. There’s where you cut to. I don’t care if it’s page 3, page 30 or page 300.
Good stories dive straight in. Good stories grab you from the beginning with interesting, complex, active characters.
Cut the start of the script. And for good measure, cut the start of most scenes, cut the start of most speeches, cut all the explanation, the setting up, the exposition.
There – that feels better, doesn’t it?
6 Comments
Geoffrey Alexander said:
October 15, 2010 at 10:03 am
Hi Charles,
Quite.
By the time the story’s been ‘set up’ and we’ve been introduced to each and every character complete with personal history, we’ve fallen asleep or left the cinema.
‘Lock the plot’ as the saying goes, ‘set it up, run it along and give it a twist.’
However, a word of caution: I once saw a nearly very good film which cut such a massive chunk off the opening that the rest of the story didn’t make much sense, it had all the elements of a good film but at the end of it I realised, they failed to give the viewer a proper context.
The initial setting up can usually be achieved in a few words and one or two scenes, in other words, it may not be, ‘cut the start,’ but rather, ‘compress.’
Great long narratives can often be summed up with a couple of shots and half a dozen lines. Atmosphere and circumstances can be grasped immediately in a well constructed opening scene; a relationship established by a look, a tone of voice and a few words.
Charles Harris said:
October 15, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Hi Geoffrey
Yes, and it’s about more than cutting mindlessly for the same of cutting.
Look at the first scene of Chinatown. You can’t crash straight in with Jake Gittes being hired to follow Mulwray before being introduced to him, but the introduction scene is full of drama, emotion, character, humour, thematic material. It’s a million miles away from “setting up” and a great scene in its own right.
Charles Harris said:
October 15, 2010 at 4:37 pm
By email from Steve Redwood:
Thanks for this.
Although it’s left me slightly confused.
I’ve got a short film script optioned, which I sent to consultants to be critiqued, and they said my inciting incident came to early on page 1, and that I needed some ‘set-up scenes’ to ‘let the audience settle’.
Which I’ve since added.
So as you can imagine now I don’t know who to believe!
Thanks,
Steve.
Charles Harris said:
October 15, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Hi Steve
We’re probably both right. (Certainly I am. Well, you’d expect me to say that, wouldn’t you?)
In my humble opinion there is no such thing as a set-up scene – there’s a dramatic scene and there’s a boring scene. And sometimes it is true you can’t hit the audience full in the face in the first seconds.
If you have written great, fascinating, involving dramatic first scenes that draw us powerfully into the story and just happen to set up what we need to know before the inciting incident happens, then brilliant.
If you have written dull, flat, expositional first scenes that bore us to tears while they “set up” something for later – well, now you know what to do. Either cut them, or make them great, fascinating, involving and dramatic!
Simple really π
Knowing it is one thing – doing it takes practice, good mentoring, more practice, and more practice. Re-read your favourite movie scripts and see how the great writers do that, time and time again.
ptara said:
October 16, 2010 at 9:51 am
I see a lot of stories with the opposite problem. They have too many endings.
I thought shrek 4 was awesome. But it didn’t need multiple epilogues. The end, with all the other ogres in the garden, was just too much for my tastes. I’d like to know what others think.
I’ve never, ever seen a story that had too long of an introduction that was otherwise well paced.
When I started reading film scripts, I got bored at the long set ups. But I was just a kid and couldn’t read that fast. I was also a writer, and I could guess what was coming up next faster than I could read.
Now, I appreciate the time they take to set up locations and characters so that the story makes sense to the average viewer.
Charles Harris said:
October 16, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Hi Ptara
I agree – the pace of the introduction is often a good indicator of whether a writer can pace the rest of it. Endings are another matter, I’ll try to get to another time.