Why Every Screenplay Needs At Least Two Outlines — Collin Watts

Photo by Jasper Garratt on Unsplash

Film Courage: When you’re writing your first draft, do you write it all the way through or do you go back and tweak a scene here or a moment here?

Collin Watts, Screenwriter: With the first draft, this is a little bit what I mentioned earlier about perfectionism, I start, I’ll write something and then I’ll go back and edit it. I’ll find myself trying to edit. I think every writer can relate to this, trying to get every action line to be perfect on the page and everything looks great, but that can slow your process down too.

For me with a first draft, I think it’s important to try to have a good outline, know where you’re going and try to really blast it out as fast as possible. Keep a lot of momentum in creating pages whether it’s daily or weekly:

-Get to the finish line of the script-Set it down for a little bit-Let it breathe -Forget about some of it so you’re not so close to it -Then pick it back up a week or two later -Or get some feedback on it a week or two later