Screenwriting: from Rough Draft to Final Draft

For my Advanced Production class, which is in essence a fiction filmmaking class, we are required to write a script and turn it into a 5–10 minute short film. I struggled with writing my script more than anything else. Specifically in trying to turn my very, very rough draft into something that could be even remotely considered a final draft. I hope that my experience will offer some advice to anyone who may be in the same position with a script they’re writing.

So, I have taken my story premise and written it out in detail onto a “Final Draft” document. It’s a coherent story, but not necessarily a good one. There are things that aren’t working or flowing right, and the whole thing still feels a bit like it’s following a premise or concept rather than leading a life of its own. In other words, I can see the story’s parts moving like the inside of a grandfather clock: the inciting incident, protagonist’s struggle with taking action, plot point two, etc.

Smoothing out these parts is always the hardest part for me in writing a script. I think that I tend to be too married to my story concept or the themes that I want to shine out in my story, which results in a culmination of scenes rather than a fluid story that people can get involved in. Although these kinds of stories have been written and filmed (Gummo, The Comedy, Entertainment, etc.), it isn’t the kind of story that people often seek out or connect with.

In order to smooth out my story, I started with shrinking my 10 page screenplay down to 6 pages. I completely got rid of scenes that weren’t necessary or pushing the story forward. I had to remember that the audience can fill in gaps in the story without you holding their hands.

Next, I took parts of my story that I felt seemed out of place and tried to nuance them a bit. My story started in the middle of a couple fighting. Naturally, I tried to convey the subject of their argument, the fact it was their anniversary, how long they had been married, and their names through dialogue — all in the first minute of the film. For obvious reasons, this felt expository and unnatural. For the final draft, I made the subject of their argument ambiguous, got rid of the plot line of it being their anniversary, and trusted the audience to figure out they had been married for a while.

The part of my screenplay I struggled with most was the climax — finding the reason the couple was arguing. It had to be a reason strong enough to cause the wife to leave the husband, but not too strong of a reason so that the wife would be willing to keep trying to make their marriage work. At first, I thought the wife would be upset because the husband got home late on their anniversary, but I got rid of the anniversary plotline. I felt an affair or something of that nature would be too heavy of a subject, so instead I decided the wife just wanted change. She wanted a break from the monotony of worklife and homelife. I feel that this subject is something that everyone can relate with and it’s something that is very real, especially in American culture.

Ultimately, these are the major changes I made to my screenplay to make it flow better and turn it into a final draft. In a sentence: some tips for making your script flow is to cut scenes, nuance dialogue, and let go of your intentions for the story and let it tell itself.

Check out the film below to see how the final screenplay turned out!