One month off
A family holiday during August coincided with my completing work on a number of screenplay stages. I completed the first draft of one, a scene by scene outline of a second and a treatment for a third.
The holiday took me away from my computer and notebooks, so I found myself taking a break from all three projects for nearly a month. I returned to them with fresh eyes last month.
I’ve often baulked at the oft-given advice that one should put a newly-completed screenplay draft away for a month before reading over it: I wondered what one could do in the meantime, and satisfied myself with working on other projects.
On my return, I went straight into writing the first draft of my scene by scene outlined screenplay, while making notes on expanding the treatment. As to the first draft, I’ve started reading through it.
I knew that when writing it there were many problems with the story: it was misshapen; characters were under-developed; the story lacked drive. Only by going back to it and starting the rewriting process can any of these problems be solved. And only by being away from this draft for a month was I able to look at it with fresh eyes.
Screenplays all start somewhere and while my particular first draft needs a lot of work, it actually exists, and what needs to be worked on can now be seen. There may be a germ of a good idea in it, but unless that idea can be worked on, there’s little purpose to it.
Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” went through 191 drafts. Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” went through 200 drafts. One of my favourite directors takes many years over his screenplays.
I hope to add a fourth screenplay project to the three screenplays I’m working on. Many new drafts need to follow in the months and years to come. As I write more and more drafts, I realise that writing well takes a great amount of time.
Burning Details 
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