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I have no idea how this happened, but I somehow got two characters in my script mixed up. I had intended for Jamie Lee to watch Margot and be her protector/"babysitter"/Sebastian the Crab type character. Somehow I must have inserted the wrong name and transferred this task to Heather.
Here's the full scene (still a WIP):
Quoted Text
EXT. POE'S WOODS - DAY
SUPER: Friday, February 29, 1980
A van drives into the woods.
VAN (DRIVING)
RUSS (early fifties) drives. He is a portly man with a Randy Quaid-like physique.
Accompanying him are MARGOT, JAMIE LEE, ADRIENNE, and HEATHER -- all 17.
Margot is Sheriff Jones's daughter. She's a quiet, smart, brains-over-beauty girl. She resembles Margot Kidder with a touch of Karen Allen and Jessica Harper.
Jamie Lee has shoulder-length light-brown hair.
Adrienne has shorter light-brown hair and is a smart-aleck.
Heather has curly black hair.
A sudden POP. The van quakes.
RUSS What the...?
Russ suddenly slows down and pulls over.
POE'S WOODS
Russ gets out and grumbles.
RUSS Son of a bitch.
Grumbling once more, he takes a look at the van. A flat.
He kicks the front left tire in frustration, letting out a long sigh. Then, he opens the driver door and speaks to Margot, seated on the passenger side.
RUSS We've got a problem, guys.
MARGOT What's wrong, Uncle Russ?
RUSS Flat.
MARGOT Don't you have a spare in the trunk?
RUSS That was the spare! The nearest pay phone's five miles back. Jamie Lee, keep an eye on the girls. Especially Margot.
ADRIENNE What's so special about Margot?
MARGOT I'm still five years old.
ADRIENNE That's not what your birthday cake said last week.
MARGOT Tell that to my asshole dad.
RUSS I wasn't talking to you, Adrienne. And Margot, no cursing. But I won't tell if you don't.
Heather smiles, extending her arm.
HEATHER You can count on me.
She and Russ shake hands.
Russ closes the door and walks back, taking out his map. Jamie Lee gets out of the van and joins him.
Margot rolls down the window.
MARGOT What the hell are you doing?
(Sheriff Ed Jones, by the way, is introduced in an earlier scene.)
And here's a later scene:
Quoted Text
EXT. POE'S WOODS - RUSS AND JAMIE LEE - DAY Russ kicks the ground, causing a pile of snow to fly through the air.
RUSS Shit! I can't believe we've got a flat, in the middle of nowhere, no pay phone nearby...
Russ huffs.
Jamie Lee catches up with him.
JAMIE LEE Uncle Russ! Uncle Russ!
RUSS Jamie Lee? I told you to--
JAMIE LEE If you get lost, what'll happen to us?
RUSS You girls are seventeen! You can't fend for yourselves.
JAMIE LEE Neither can you.
RUSS (defeated) Fine. But when your Uncle Ed finds out about this, it'll be both our asses.
He and Jamie Lee walk around.
RUSS I wish somebody would invent portable phones. Wouldn't that be something? And make 'em cordless!
JAMIE LEE Number one, that's what pay phones are for. Number two, they'd be prohibitively expensive. And number three, they'd kill horror movies dead in their tracks.
Russ pauses, thinks.
Jamie Lee eyes him with a face that says "Here's an idea."
JAMIE LEE ...Or you could just buy a C-B.
Russ takes a step back, his face reading "Why didn't I think of that?"
RUSS Damn, you're right.
Russ takes out his map.
I added the "What the hell are you doing?" and "Uncle Russ!" parts to compensate for what I thought was the plot hole. Turns out I just swapped characters.
I just realized in another scene in between these two, I have Heather saying dialogue I had intended for Jamie Lee.
I really like the banter/chemistry as written and don't want to ruin it. Should I simply swap the names back? What would you do? Thanks in advance.
After sitting on it for a while, I decided to just swap the names back. And it reads fine. For the most part, both characters are saying what I'd expect them, respectively, to say. This script is just slowly evolving. I have a lot of scene fragments at the end that I'm planning to flesh out.
Has anyone else ever done this, and how did you fix it?
Good thinking, Chris! I think it can happen while you're typing away and the character name is auto inserted. I would have done the same thing you did.
Perhaps don't type while tired, and definitely not while intoxicated, not that I'm suggesting the latter.
After sitting on it for a while, I decided to just swap the names back. And it reads fine. For the most part, both characters are saying what I'd expect them, respectively, to say. This script is just slowly evolving. I have a lot of scene fragments at the end that I'm planning to flesh out.
Has anyone else ever done this, and how did you fix it?
I always to a final key word search on my character names to make sure I didn't mixed them up
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I got my characters mixed up
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