Never Give Your Script to Anyone Hot Off the Press!

As writers work endless hours in solitude, the deeper we delve, the more we tend lose objectivity on the quality and coherence of our projects. Once we feel we're "done", by any stretch of the word, we're always anxious to get immediate feedback on whether we've achieved our goals or fallen short. So we take our creation hot off the press, and put it in a reader's hands.

Then, moments later, we make an adjustment. Or realize something isn't quite right. We fix here, tinker there, rewrite a little, then, making the same mistake a second time, immediately send our revised copy to our trusted reader who has already begun - if not finished - the original draft. Usually this is accompanied with an apologetic email sounding something like "really sorry if you've started my first draft already, I made some revisions, and now the structure is better, I've eliminated/combined some characters, and put a whole new twist on the ending! The new draft is absolute genius, so trash that first one and check this baby out!".

In varying degrees I have committed this sin, as have friends of mine, as I'm sure have you.

It may seem a small sin, but I don't think there's any such thing as a small sin in the Business - they're all large, egregious sins, because they can affect your career not in just one, but in many different ways.

For example, we all know the importance of connections and the value of a true, "trusted reader", a friend or acquaintance who will give you honest and specific feedback, no smoke, no bull. But any trusted reader is going to get tired of re-starting your towering work of staggering genius every time you feel another adjustment needs to be made. People have better things to do. It also gives the impression you are unorganized, amateurish and flaky. There is so much competition in this business, and so many flakes and wannabe's that most professionals will zero in on the tiniest, most insignificant piece of information about a potential writer and characterize said writer based entirely on their mistake. If that seems unfair or illogical, consider the sheer volume of material out there producers, agents, readers, execs and directors have to slog through each day just to find the two or three unproven writers or new projects they may say "yes" to this year. Fifty thousand original scripts registered with the WGA each year, of which less than 50 will even get optioned (remember, I said "original" works. Most projects bought now days are almost exclusively based on pre-existing works). Think of a prospector who has to sift through an entire mountain to find a half-ounce of gold flecks. You think he's going to closely examine every stone comprising the mountain for their individual merits? To say these people are busy is a gross understatement, that's why the Business is a lifestyle, not just another occupation out can clock out from on Friday.

So by jumping the gun before your material is ready, not only have you distanced a valuable resource, you've also painted in their minds a picture of someone who's "not ready yet". That's not where you want to be. Also, I doubt your trusted reader will be waiting on pins and needles to read your next project when they know they'll have to read at least 3 drafts of basically the same story. No one is going to have the same passion or tolerance for your project as you do, don't test what little they do have. If, however, you turn in your projects with i's dotted, t's crossed and such, your reader will look upon you as someone they don't mind spending their time on, because you appear serious about your work. There are other side effects too, which are self evident if you consider the topic a moment, but since I passed brevity about three paragraphs ago, I'll stop detailing the problem and consequences here.

Now it's time to talk about solutions, which should also be pretty obvious: once you're "done" with your project, SHOW IT TO NO ONE. Throw it in a drawer. Close the drawer. Nail it shut Wyle E. Coyote style and don't go near that drawer for at least two or three weeks -- at least (I recommend a month). What you need right now is to get your mind off your project -- literally to forget about it. Start another screenplay, read some books, ply your hobby, whatever, just forget about what's sitting in that drawer for a while.

Then, one day when you don't feel like it, pull the nails out, open the drawer, go to a quiet place for at least 2 hours with a pen, a highlighter, a pencil and your script. Then read. Take notes. Make changes. Do what you need to do. You'll be surprised -- shocked, actually -- at the many errors that litter your script. Don't worry, that's expected, you've been staring at this document for hours on end for months, of course you're not going to see things that will scream out to other, more objective readers. Then go to your computer and plug in those changes and guess what? Entomb it in another drawer for another week or two. Rinse, repeat.

Then, after two touch up/rewrites, maybe, just maybe, your work of staggering genius will be ready to be seen by foreign eyes.