Rewriting Your Script, Part 6: Pace
Since dozens of writers used Go On Your Own Quest to pound out a first draft of their original screenplay, I decided to start off the New Year with a week-long series on rewriting, to honor their commitment and effort, and to encourage them [and everyone else] on their creative journey.
We’ve all heard the adage, “Writing is rewriting,” right? Perhaps nowhere is that more true than screenwriting. Aspiring screenwriters know this because of the number of drafts they go through to whip their script into readable shape. Professional screenwriters understand this because of the multiple drafts they do on any project, whether on spec or assignment.
Rewriting is just the nature of the screenwriting beast.
But that begs the question: How? What are some keys to the rewriting process? Instead of wandering around in the dark not knowing if you’re improving the story or not, is there a coherent approach to rewriting your scripts?
First off, the same thing applies to rewriting as to writing: There is no right way to write. There is no right way to rewrite. Every writer is different. Every story is different. And every rewrite is different.
That said, this week I will lay out some keys to the process. If they help you, great. Use them with my blessing. If they don’t help you, feel free to chuck them.
Part 6: Pace
A screenplay is different than a novel in this respect: Whereas most novels are written in the past tense, a screenplay is in the present tense. There is a good reason for this.
Whereas in a novel, you have time to explore the inner life of characters, to step aside from the narrative to provide ancillary background, or to reflect upon the proceedings, with a screenplay you do not. Why? Because you have so little time.
A screenplay is 120 pages long, a number that is actually shrinking over the last decade, so that now it is common for scripts to be 110 or even 100 pages.
The same phenomenon is affecting scenes: They used to average 2 pages, now they clock in around 1 ½ pages. [Obviously these numbers vary from script to script, genre to genre.]
What this means is there is even more of a relentless push to move the story forward.
This makes total sense. A movie tells a self-contained story with a concise Beginning, Middle and End [just like Aristotle explained thousands of years ago]. And in that self-contained story, there is almost always this dynamic at work: The Protagonist goes through a metamorphosis, beginning in one psyche state and ending up in quite another.
Thus scenes are written in the present tense because what transpires on screen unfolds now, our eyes and ears literally watching and hearing events as they occur in the moment.
And yet while these events happen in the present, there is within every scene a narrative drive that is constantly pushing the story into the future.
The dean of American screenwriting William Goldman [Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride, Marathon Man] says this in his essential book “Adventures in the Screen Trade”:
Rule of thumb: You always attack a movie scene as late as you possibly can. You always come into the scene as the last possible moment, which is why when you see a scene in a movie where a person is a teacher, for instance, the scene always begins with the teacher saying, ‘Well, class…’ and the bell rings. And then you get into another scene because it’s very dull watching a man talk to people in a room… In a book you might start with some dialogue, and then describe your clothing, and more dialogue. The camera gets that in an instant. Boom, and you’re on. Get on, get on. The camera is relentless. Makes you keep running.
Makes you keep running. That is the essence of it: Writing in the present tense with your mind always aware of the future.
Fortunately there are two aspects of a screenplay that push the story forward and provide that narrative drive: And if you guessed Plotline and Themeline, you would be right.
In the Plotline, one scene leads directly into the next. The chain of events in the External World is like a relay race where each scene passes the baton to the next, a continuous flow of action from Beginning to End.
Or at least a screenplay should move like that. If your current draft doesn’t, this will be one of your goals with a rewrite.
In the Themeline, there is the dynamic momentum of a Protagonist’s metamorphosis at work, typically evolving from Disunity to Deconstruction to Reconstruction to Unity. [Again this can vary from script to script.]
Moreover within each scene and sequence, there is a constant interplay between Plotline and Themeline where the events in the External World influence character’s attitudes in the Internal World which causes them to grow which in turns impacts their actions.
Event>>>>>>>>>Attitude>>>>>>>Growth>>>>>>>Action>>>>>>>Event>>>>>>>
Attitude>>>>>>>Growth>>>>>>>Attitude>>>>>>>Event>>>>>>>Growth>>>>>>>
Action>>>>>>>Event>>>>>>>Attitude>>>>>>>Growth>>>>>Action>>>>>>>>>>>
This is an ongoing dynamic that exists as part of the Protagonist’s movement through the story, an organic interweaving of external stimuli and internal reactions resulting in his/her metamorphosis.
Which is to say if a writer zeroes in on these two dynamics — the natural flow from one scene to the other, and the movement of the Protagonist amidst their metamorphosis — you can find a natural source of energy to build and sustain your story’s pace.
Tomorrow we get down to the real nitty gritty: Scene-by-scene breakdown.
FYI: Tom Benedek will be teaching the next session of Pages II: Rewriting Your Script through Screenwriting Master Class beginning February 18.
Be sure to check out the free Go On Your Own Quest Forum, an online writing community and extension of this blog.
Comment Archive