Hey all,

I've recently completed my first dramatic feature script today, and I know it has a lot of work that needs to be fixed. So, it got me thinking: when is a new draft considered a new draft?

In my previous script, Solium, I've labeled my most recent submission my Fifth Draft, because it's the fifth time I changed something that actually mattered in the script. So, how can I determine how much needs to be changed in order for a script to be considered a second, third, or even twelfth draft? Does correcting only spelling and grammar mistakes count? Or changing dialogue up a bit so it reads better? Or do you actually have to change something to the story, take out or add a scene for it to be another draft of your screenplay?

This has had me wondering for a while now.

Thanks,

Sean

Any time you change a document - even if it's adding a single '.' then that result is considered a new draft of that document.    You could, of course, be lazy and not mark it as so but it will be a new draft whether you say so or not.

Now rewrites are a different issue entirely.

There's no set rule for this, Sean.  Usually, when I make so many changes (beside spelling and grammar correction) in the script, I save it as a different draft.  Usually, I stop at four or five drafts, though I do have a script that underwent thirteen drafts.


Phil

Interesting question, and I bet you'll get a variety of answers.

I remember Breanne answering this question a while back and I agree with her. What you have right now would be considered a rough draft and not a first draft. A first draft is just that - your first attempt at something, however it should be polished and gone over until you feel you can't make any more changes and you're completely satisfied with it.

Then you should get professional coverage to supplement the opinions of those of us who know less than the experts and who will weigh in on your script as well. With that feedback, you go back to the script and change what you feel needs to be changed. Again, go through the script again and again until you feel that THIS version does not need to be changed at all.

As an example, I re-wrote what I called the first draft of my feature six times, and I re-wrote my second draft three times.

And yes, many writers feel the opposite of this - that anytime they go through and catch spelling and grammar and perhaps the odd clunky line of dialogue, they've completed a draft. Not really the case.

I don't like to wait too long between saving different drafts.  I keep all of them should I have to refer to them.


Phil

Howdy, Z Sean

OMG.
In an attempt to lightly investigate what indeed is the difference between a draft, rewrite and edit it seems I've uncovered a morass of industry nit-picking, bordering on insanity to the point of irritation.
I'd just as soon drop the carpet back over the squirreling mess of roaches and pill-bugs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_process

>> Whether being used as the creation of a less-edited final product (Strunk and White) or as a tool during the prewriting stage (Elbow), drafting is a necessary stage for the writer in the writing process. Having created a draft, the author is then able to move onto the revision. <<

>> Revision is the stage in the writing process where the author reviews, alters, and amends her or his message, according to what has been written in the draft. Revision follows drafting and precedes editing. Drafting and revising often form a loop as a work moves back and forth between the two stages. It is not uncommon for professional writers to go through many drafts and revisions before successfully creating an essay that is ready for the next stage: editing. <<

>> A "light edit" otherwise known as a '"minor change" may be regarded as changes that do not substantively change the theme, typefacing, tone, structure, characters, or other elements of intellectual property that are held by the author. Such changes would include spelling, or grammar in a way that does not deviate from the author's use of, say, non-standard grammar or speech patterns.

A "heavy edit" may change substantively the tone, structure, characters, or other elements of intellectual property contained in the work. <<

Whatever.
Do what the Wright Bros. did and just keep effing with it until it flies.
GL!

I agree there's a difference between drafts and rewrites. I think if you went over a script to tighten up the action lines, even dropping the page count by a few numbers, you'd have a new draft but not necessarily a rewrite. I think a rewrite would need to affect something that ends up onscreen (basically story, characters, dialogue - all of which factor into the tone).

I think the amount of drafts/rewrites one needs to produce in order to declare a script "finished" is an interesting discussion. I'm one to agree with the expression that an artist's work is never finished. I think once people start disagreeing with what should or shouldn't changed, that's the closest you can really consider yourself to done (as it shows it's a matter of opinion from then on). Either that or you flat out disagree with people who comment on your work.

I usually rewrite a script twice before submitting it. I think technically that's four drafts.

Just to drop another opinion on this, I feel that a numbered draft is where you have something that your consider "done" at that point. It's at a point where you can step away from it. When you work on it again and make further revisions and tweaks and whatever, and then reach another point where you can consider it done again, then you would have another draft.

I think what we tend to refer to around here as a "1st draft" is really a rough draft in most cases. A rough draft is what you get the first time you finish something before you take two steps back and then return to it to fix all the stuff you thought worked when you first wrote it. I think it's after that first pass through it that you get your first real draft.

So my nutshell version of all that is that drafts are separated by time off:
Rough Draft
Forget about it
1st Draft
Forget about it
2nd Draft
Forget about it

That would be my opinion.

No matter how many changes a writer makes, the draft you sell will be called a first draft. The reason scripts are given new draft numbers after that is because other people will be involved at that point.

When you sell a script, if it goes into production, you will get notes from people involved with the production (if you do the rewrites). Those drafts will then be distinguished one from another. But it’s because there are so many people involved at this point. They will need to know one draft from another.

So you can call your drafts whatever you want while it’s just you determining changes. But if you ever sell it, in the industry it will be recognized as a first draft.


Breanne

I do the same thing George mentioned. I write the script and then leave it alone for a little bit so I can kind of forget what happens in it. After a while, I look it back up and read through it, fix any mistakes—spelling, grammar, or plot—and then once I'm finished with that, then I wait a while longer and open it back up again and fix anything else that I catch.

I see there's a difference between a new draft and a rewrite, so that kind of clears things up. A rewrite is basically what it says, where you rewrite something to the point where it's obviously noticeable, rather than a new draft where you've fixed a couple small mistakes that really change nothing to the script.

And, of course, I never considered a new draft being an actual new draft when other people come in and read the script and tell you what works and what doesn't and help you change things. Which, in my case, would be you guys, right?

Thanks everyone!

Sean