Don't be a Tweaker
You know you do it. You compulsively tweak your script. A little here a little there, you can't leave it alone. You go back through the pages and change dialogue. And change it back. And fix an action line. And fix it back. But then the real trouble begins. You tweak something on page thirty-two which necessitates changing something on page seventeen. And page forty-nine. Now you're done. Time to send that script off to a competition, consultant, friend - whoever. But wait - one more tweak r-i-g-h-t here...
When does a writer know when to leave well enough (or bad enough) alone? Make sure that every time you open your script you have an actual goal in mind. Maybe you are in the midst of adding new scenes, aka actually completing your script. Maybe you just got some notes and you're addressing the pertinent sequences. Maybe you're just rereading it one last time and OH LOOK there's something to tweak.
The problem with tweaking ad infinitum is that you can't see the forest for the trees. Yes, tweaking can improve your pages, but if you do it compulsively, sort of like chewing a fingernail, you can actually damage your script and/or just be wasting your valuable time. Because your time is very valuable, as a screenwriter. Anyone can go back through and rearrange punctuation, but what actually improved and shifted in your last session with your script?
So before you open your script for the day ask yourself: what is the goal of this writing session? Am I tweaking here and there but ultimately getting the work done? Or am I stalled out in tweak-mode? In many ways, tweaking is the way screenwriters justify to themselves that they are working on the script so lay off! But - it's a little lie they tell themselves because they aren't actually being productive at all.
It's like saying you're going to clean the kitchen and then making yourself a snack. You ARE in the kitchen, right? Right.
So make sure to set goals for your writing sessions and keep it real: are you achieving the goals you set or are you rearranging words to kill time and feel productive?
This tip might work only for the total geek Wavers but hey - trying something new can't hurt, right? When you sit down to write, look at the clock. Give yourself a time-limit. Now say to yourself: I am writing for 45 minutes. And when I open this script the goal is: [insert goal here].
Goals might include:
finish pages 25 through 35
write the murder scene
review script for character development of Myrtle
work on dialogue in the sex scene
review the big battle, make sure I didn't cop out
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7 comments:
I had to laugh when I read this. I have a friend who recently completed his first screenplay. It took him roughly three years to get it written. When he finally “finished” it, he told me, “That’s it, it’s done.” But every week or two we’d get together and he’d be tweaking the script. Cutting a little here, a little there. Well, he’s been sending out queries in the last few months. He’s actually had a couple nibbles from producers. Yes, he’s sending the scripts out, but still manages to tweak the script a little here, a little there. Every time he says, “Well, I just keep finding things I can change. But that’s it, I’m done.” Then a couple weeks later he’s telling me about something else he’s changed. He says, “I just can’t leave it alone.” Arrgh. This wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t have another script idea brewing. I told him, “The first script is done. It’s out. It’s time to move on to the next one.” But he won’t stop tweaking that first script, a little here, a little there.
Jim
www.TheWorkingScreenwriter.com
I am compulsive tweaker. Fortunately, I eventually get sick of looking at the script and stop. I wonder if there is a Compulsive Tweakers Anonymous I could join.
The French 20th-century writer Paul Valery famously once said, “A poem is never finished, only abandoned.”
I have a friend who has been writing a novel for over twenty years. He keeps tweaking, poking at it, rewriting it. Once upon a time (and we're speaking decades here) I was his high-school English teacher, when I threatened him with an "Incomplete" for his course work in fiction-writing.
His problem is a simple, and common, one: fear of judgement, fear of failure. And because he'll never try, he'll never fail.
He'll also never be a writer.
My Writing Partner is a tweaker. I am not. He'll call me in the middle of the night and excitedly tell me he wants to totally rewrite some scene because a friend of his said it wasn't funny enough.
I keep telling him to leave it alone for a couple of weeks then go back to it but I think he may be incapable of doing that.
I only make changes that correct typos or consolidate dialog to one line.
Even then I continue to go forward with other scripts. I'm writing two right now; one in the morning, one at night.
I also force myself to "rewrite while writing," or saying the lines as I write them. If it sounds too dry or too "nosey," I fix it then.
One thing I would never do is add "better" vocabulary. I hate reading scripts that require a dictionary.
BTW, tweakers are people who smoke crack.
Christian - great comment, thank you. I know what tweakers are; izza little winky winky. :)
I may need the name of that support group too haha
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