Write the Damn Thing!
DAY 30
Congratulations!
You’ve made it to the last day of the challenge. You are now the proud owner of a TV pilot. That’s fantastic. Taking things out of the world of ideas and bringing them to ours is a hard, but rewarding process. You are feeling proud, right? You should.
What’s next? There are different places where you can submit your story. There are contests all over the world, agents, and producers looking for new stories every-day. You can submit your project to our online market here. Hundreds of producers are registered and active. Get discovered.
Are you in London by any chance? We also have the upcoming 2nd London TV PITCHBOX. Check it out and see if it’s for you.
Does this mean you are done? Nope. There’s still one last thing to be done. My last nugget of advice.
Key concept of screenwriting: Writing is rewriting.
I’m 100% sure that while you were writing your story you wanted to go back and fix some stuff. That’s not a great idea while you are writing because you might get trapped in an infinite loop of improving the beginning and never finishing.
You don’t have the full context of the story yet, there might be things that do need to be improved that you don’t know of if you keep rewriting the start without having the end.
We’ve been writing fast. The text is a rough version of its final self. It’s a mash of great ideas, that needs to be untangled and shaved. But it’s all there.
Think of your script as a living organism that is evolving and changing. There might be stuff in there that you don’t need. Lines a character say that don’t fit their personality. Descriptions that are too long. Don’t feel bad that you are taking them out, feel great that you’ve realized they need to be changed!
‘Kill your darlings.’ They say.
Look for what you can cut. It’s better to have a great 55 pages script than an average 60 pages one.
Readers are ruthless.
Day 30 task.
Read your manuscript with a pen. Take notes of everything that can be improved upon. Improve it. Do that until you can’t improve it any further. This will take you some time. Don’t rush. The story is not going anywhere.
This is it. I hope you guys had a good time. It’s been a great experience for me. Difficult at times, but fun. Probably how you felt while writing your story. Thanks for reading.
I’m looking forward to seeing your shows on TV.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Happy rewriting!
F.M.
Find the previous post here.
