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I just finished the first draft of a supernatural thriller. The first draft of the first draft was 125 pages long (my shortest first draft with feature scripts). After going back and tightening things (no real changes), the first draft is now 112 pages. I'm hoping to cut another five or ten pages from it with more serious revisions.
I've kinda changed my approach on the page length as of my last couple of scripts and there are advantages and disadvantage to my new approach.
I used to throw it out there, page count be dammed and then start cutting fat.
I now (as I write) go back every 20 pages, and trim what I can as I go. It's a much slower process but it forces me to revisit each scene over again and ask - does it really push the script forward?
If not, it gets chopped.
When I'm done, I still have a fat script but I don't have to go back with a meat cleaver to trim it.
My vomit drafts are exactly that. Just like the real thing. It stinks and it's often gross. It takes a lot of courage and trust to send your VD to anyone of your friends. Just like you don't call attention to your vomit either...if you've thrown up that is.
Yeah, you're always apologizing for the thing twenty times before you even send it. Like Phil, I trim the heck out of the protein spill before anyone sees it.
Clone Wife, for instance, vomited out at 122 pages. I sliced out a dozen pages before anyone saw it. Not story or scenes. just being more precise with my storytelling. Subsequent drafts ranged from 95 to 111 pages.
E.D.
LATEST NEWS CineVita Films is producing a short based on my new feature!
With me, a scene tends to go through two-three iterations before it even reaches the status of "First Draft".
It usually goes something like this:
Sketching out a hand-written "vomit draft" while on the subway. (It's a great way to pass the time, and ensures me a minimum two hours per day of writing.) Then refining and retyping it into Final Draft when I get home.
Alternatively - when I have access to it - I may actually write the scene in MS Word first. Then it gets cut and pasted into Final Draft, and re-typed line by line.
Then - once I've done a few scenes - I tend to go back and chisel a bit before moving on...
Mind you, that's all done with an outline already in place.
Leads to a really quick and semi-clean first draft, written with "vomit draft" speed. Though very, very, very far from the finished product!
My vomit drafts are exactly that. Just like the real thing. It stinks and it's often gross. It takes a lot of courage and trust to send your VD to anyone of your friends. Just like you don't call attention to your vomit either...if you've thrown up that is.
I feel kinda self conscious having you read my VD right about now.
We post our vomit drafts here on 7WC. Then we collectively vomit more vomit on them creating a big valuable stink! As an author I always appreciate some vomit on my vomit.
Doesn't anyone here use the corkboard and index cards? I just hung one up. It has three pieces of masking tape on it equally spaced. Act One, Two, and Three.
I've never tried this before. My first feature was a logic disaster. So far I've got three darts stuck in it, but I'm becoming better at dart tossing.
I have been using an app on my Ipad called Index Cards, which allows you to type out scenes and notes on virtual index cards and then easily move those cards around. The best part was that it only cost like 99 cents and I can store as many projects on it as I want (if I were prolific, which I'm not).
I wish I could write a vomit draft. I seem to suffer from a disorder that compels me to edit a scene to death before I move to another scene. Consequently, I am the world's slowest writer. But when I finally finish this feature...look out!
Some of my scripts:
Bounty (TV Pilot) -- Top 1% of discoverable screenplays on Coverfly I'll Be Seeing You (short) - OWC winner The Gambler (short) - OWC winner Skip (short) - filmed Country Road 12 (short) - filmed The Family Man (short) - filmed The Journeyers (feature) - optioned
I couldn't help but to picture, Chunk, telling "everything" to the Fratellis.
I can't do a vomit draft. I need the structure of an outline to make sure I even have a story worth telling.
I may have a few cool scenes in my head, but I don't want to waste time trying to vomit out a feature based on those scenes, only to find out that I have no story.