In my last post I espoused the virtues of writing vomit drafts. The idea is to write the first draft as quickly as possible without worrying too much about the quality. It’s not always the best approach, but it’s fantastic if you’re dealing with writer’s block, especially when driven by the fear of failure.

Once you finish the vomit draft, the idea is to then take it from barf to beauty through the revision process.

How do you do that?

One step at a time.

Reading a script, checking it twice

Step 1 is to take a break (if you haven’t yet) after finishing the first draft. This helps you transition from the mindset of the writer to that of the reader. When we revise our own work we carry with us our knowledge and understanding of the script. Other readers don’t have that benefit, so things that make sense to us won’t make sense to them.

I’ll be honest, if you read over your first draft while you’re still tired from writing it, your standards will be a lot lower. You might read a part of your script and think, “That’s probably fine” since thinking it’s not fine means you have to do more work. (And who wants to do more work when you're tired?) When you’re rested up you can read that same part of your script, recognize you need to change it, and summon the will to do it.

The first time you read through the script I recommend you do so with out stopping so you can get a sense of how it flows. After you’re done, write down your overall impressions. What felt like it was working, and what didn’t? Where did it feel too slow or too rushed? Were the characters properly developed? Do we care about them?

On the second read you can write down notes and make comments as you go. This is where Arc Studio’s comments come in handy. You can leave comments for yourself with custom tags, and then sort those tags later.

Make a game plan

After your second read, it’s time to start revising. If you’re a fan of taking the whole thing on at once, more power to you. For those of us who feel easily overwhelmed it helps to break the revision down into manageable tasks. Try making a list of all the things you want to improve in the script during the revision process. You can then check them off one by one as you go.

Arc Studio makes this easy with our built-in Notes app. You can create a check list of all the items and watch the progress indicator fill up as each item is checked off.

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But where on the checklist do you start?

The pyramid approach

I recommend starting with the big stuff in your first revision and then working up to the smaller things in subsequent revisions.

Picture a pyramid. At the base you have your structure, characters, and themes. In the middle you have the structure of your individual scenes, and at the top you have your dialogue and the style of your action lines.

You may feel tempted to start with the dialogue and action lines in your scenes, but there’s a good chance some of these scenes are going to be cut and others are going to change drastically. You don’t want to waste your time improving dialogue in a scene that will soon be gone from your script.

Instead, build a strong foundation and the rest will follow. I like to begin by looking at the structure and character journeys, which are intertwined. During this process you may find it helpful to re-outline your script. Once your structure and character journeys are sorted, you can move onto revisions at the scene and dialogue level.

Get feedback from others

When you feel you’ve got the script in the strongest shape possible, get feedback on it from knowledgeable sources. Try to utilize any free resources at your disposal, like a writers’ group or a script swap with members of any writing community you may be a part of. If you have the budget for it, you can also enroll in a screenwriting class or pay for coverage services.

Check out my post on getting notes for more, but one thing I will say is make sure you work on your script first before sending it to others. Don’t just finish a vomit draft and email it to everyone you know. In order for feedback to be helpful, the script needs to be in strong enough shape that the reader understands what you’re trying to do.

Keep revising

I can’t say how many drafts your script will need, but don’t be discouraged if it’s a lot. (I’m working on a fifth draft of a feature right now!) Keep working on it until you believe it’s as strong as possible and the people you’re showing it to are enthusiastic about it. If these readers are in the industry, the best way to gauge enthusiasm is if they want to share it with other people in the industry.