Scott Myers

About the Author

Im Scott Myers and I have been a screenwriter for three decades. I broke into the
business when I sold a spec script to Universal Pictures which became the hit movie
K-9 and spawned two sequels. I've written over 30 movie and TV projects for every
major studio and broadcast network, including Alaska (Sony/ Castle Rock), and Trojan
War (Warner Bros.). I have been a member of the Writers Guild of America, West since
1987.

I graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts degree (with Honors)
in Religious Studies and Yale University, where I received a Masters of Divinity degree
cum laude. Ive variously enjoyed stints as a musician and stand-up comedian.

From 2002-2010, I was an executive producer at Trailblazer Studios, overseeing the

companys original TV content development for Scripps and Discovery networks.

In my spare time, I took up teaching in 2002 in the UCLA Extension Writers Program,
receiving its Outstanding Instructor Award in 2005. For eight years, I was a visiting
lecturer in the Writing for Screen and Stage program at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. In 2010, I co-founded Screenwriting Master Class with my longtime
friend and professional colleague Tom Benedek whose movie credits include Cocoon.

In 2008, I launched Go Into The Story which for the last five years has been the Official
Screenwriting Blog of the Black List. Some numbers: The site has had over 10 million
unique visits, 20 million page views, and I have posted 20,000+ items for over 3,000
consecutive days. The Go Into The Story Twitter feed has over 43,000 followers.

In November 2015, I went public with the Zero Draft Thirty Challenge write an entire
script draft in 30 days and over 1,000 writers joined in. Out of that, the Zero Draft
Thirty Facebook group emerged and as of January 2017 has over 1,400 members.

In 2016, I was excited to be offered and accept the position of Assistant Professor at the
DePaul University School of Cinematic Arts in Chicago where I teach screenwriting to
both undergraduate and graduate students.

The adventure continues...

Scott Myers
Foreword
The Go Into The Story PDF Series

Two motivators I had in launching Go Into The Story in May 2008 were:
1. to create an extensive online resource for writers and
2. to provide that information for free.
The world needs more diverse voices in the filmmaking community and making educational
content available to anyone and everyone is my humble way to facilitate that vision.
There are currently over 20,000 posts on my blog and while an impressive number, it can be
overwhelming for readers. So based on suggestions from several people, I decided to launch
a new initiative:
Make a new Go Into The Story PDF available each month to the public.
I reached out to the GITS community for volunteers to help with this effort and Id like to
express my deep gratitude to Trish Curtin and George Clay Mitchell. They stepped up to
handle the process of taking blog posts and creating the ebooks in this series. A special blast
of creative juju to you both!

You can download the previous editions by clicking on their titles below.

Volume 1: 30 Things about Screenwriting

Volume 2: So-Called Screenwriting Rules
Volume 3: Writing a Screenplay
This is the fourth book in the series, entitled Rewriting Your Screenplay

Youve completed your Zero Draft. If youre a bit like me, staring at my 86 pages of
diamonds-in-the-rough amidst pages and pages of verbal manure, you may find yourself
pondering this question:
How the hell do I rewrite this mess?
This is the free GITS book that will help you with the rewrite process. The first thing to
acknowledge is that the same thing applies to rewriting as to writing: If 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, I have laid out some keys to the rewriting process.
If they help you, great. Use them with my blessing.
If they dont help you, feel free to chuck them and find your own way.

Its my goal to do whatever I can to open up the gates of entry to the world of screenwriting
to any and all who feel the calling which is why I started the blog in the first place so
share this ebook with anyone you feel may benefit. You have my blessing.

More installments in this series to come each month in 2017

Onward!

Scott Myers
REWRITING A SCREENPLAY: CONTENTS

Cover

About the Author

Foreword

Set It Aside

Clean Read

Character

Theme

Structure

Pace

Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

Revision Outline

Polish

Final Edit

Go Into The Story And Find The Animals

Resources + Links

Scott Myers
SET IT ASIDE
So, you just typed FADE OUT / THE END. Draft done. Huzzah!
What a bear that was. Days, weeks, months of work.
You feel good about getting through the draft, but you know the script needs work.
First step: Set aside your script for at least two weeks.
Thats right: At. Least. Two. Whole. Weeks.
Even if you have to put your script under lock and key.
No peeking! Why? Several reasons.

You need to celebrate.

For most writers, there is nothing harder than completing that first draft. Every
single scene represented an opportunity for you to turn back, give up and stop
writing. Yet you prevailed. That is a victory, my friend, an achievement that deserves
acclamation.

So call up some of your friends and go out on the town. Or locate your significant
other you know, that person whos been looming at the edge of your consciousness
for months now and take them out for a really nice dinner.

Best advice: Go to Costco and pick up a bottle of Veuve Clicquot for about
$45. A great champagne and if theres one time to drink some bubbly, its
when you finish that damn first draft!

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 5

You need to recharge your batteries.
Writing a first draft is like going on a heros journey. You have to fight against Self-
Doubt, Nagging Voices, and Life Intrusions. That requires a boatload of positive
energy. The whole process can be exhausting.

Before you shift into rewrite mode, you need to recharge and regenerate, restore and
rejuvenate. In fact, lets coin a writing mantra right here, right now: Recharge.
Regenerate. Restore. Rejuvenate. Then Rewrite.

Rewriting is a marathon. You dont run another marathon right after youve you
know, run a marathon. So use these two plus weeks to recharge your batteries.

You need to get away from your story.

You know this in your gut. You know this in your mind. Why? Because how many
times have you finished a draft and thought, My God! This is brilliant!
Magnificent! Then some time later, you happen to read that draft again and you
cant believe you wrote such a piece of crap.

Look, you have gone into your story, immersing yourself in that universe, falling in
love with those characters. Of course, youre going to think your script is a wondrous
piece of art because you have no objective point of reference.

Use this time to extract yourself from your story. Get some distance. If you are really
good about setting your script aside, not clicking it open to read through it one more
time, not spending your free time thinking about your characters, just completely
releasing the story into a virtual vault somewhere, after two weeks or so, you should
be in a position where you do have what I call a fresh set of eyes.

Once you have a fresh set of eyes, you are ready for the Clean Read.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 6

CLEAN READ
What exactly is a clean read? A clean read is where a writer sets asides their wants
and desires, fantasies and attachments, prejudgments and opinions, and reads the
script for what it is: a story. You try to be as objective, clear-headed, and honest as
you can about the material. A clean read is not about you. Its about the words on the
page. What works. What does not work.

How do you go about doing a clean read? Heres my advice:

Set aside two full hours for the read. No interruptions. Mark it on the
calendar if you must. But be prepared to read your script in one sitting.

Print out a new copy of your script. Recycled paper, of course. Dont read it off
your computer screen, you need the tactile experience of fingertips on paper.

Get a good pen. If youre smart, youll snag a new one so you dont run out of ink.
Make sure the tip is thin enough to support writing notes in the margins.

Find a quiet spot. Not the local coffee shop. Not the living room while your kids
watch The Walking Dead. A room. With a door. That you shut. To keep people out.

Turn off all electronics. Every last one of them: Cell phone, computer, TV, radio.
The lamp? You can leave that on. Squinting isnt conducive to a clean read.

Now you are ready

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 7

You sit down. You get comfortable, your script on your lap (I prefer my
scripts the old-fashioned way: three-hole punch paper, two 1 brass brads, one
top, one bottom). Your pen in hand. A glass of water at the ready (no caffeine or
alcohol, you want a clear head). And then...

Remember what you did when you typed FADE OUT? You heaved a sigh. A big sigh.

Now just before you flip open your script to read it, close your eyes and take a breath.
A big breath. Hold it for a few seconds and focus on being here now.

Be. Here. Now.

Then exhale. Slowly. Open your eyes. And you are ready for your clean read.

What to look for in the clean read?

Generally, this: What works. What doesnt work.

The purpose of a clean read is for you to organize your general impressions of the
story. That is your primary goal.

If you catch typos, unnecessary scene description, flat dialogue or clunky transitions,
note those, too.

But your main focus is on the big-ticket items: Characters. Themes. Structure. Pace.

Feel free to write all over the script. Margins. Title page. Backs of pages.

Characters: If there are issues with your Protagonist, or if any characters

seems unclear, especially in their relationship to the Protagonist, make note of
those instances. On the other hand, if you feel like some moments really nailed
characters and how you envisioned them, note those as well.

Themes: If there are themes that you knew you wanted to work in, but
theyre missing, or surprising themes that show promise, write down your
impressions.

Structure: If you feel like the Plotline takes too long to go somewhere, gets
confusing, or wanders, note those. On the other hand, where you feel like the
narrative really chugs along or key plot points just flat out work, make a note of
those, too.

Pace: If the script feels to move too fast or too slow, or it just clips right along
at an excellent pace, write down those instances where it strikes you right or
wrong.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 8

You want to give yourself a set of real-time notes as you go through the script. This is
invaluable in helping give you both a macro and micro view of your story.

Give yourself that full two hours. If you finish reading in less time, go ahead and
review it again, continuing to make notes.

What to do with that mess of reactions and marginalia? I suggest working through
each of the four aspects noted above:

Characters
Themes
Structure
Pace

All with an eye toward creating a revision outline.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 9

CHARACTER
After your clean read, its time to go back through your draft again. And again. And
again. Four aspects on which you can focus: Characters. Themes. Structure. Pace.

Lets talk about characters:

We are not talking about novels. We are talking about screenplays. As screenwriters,
we have no more than 120 pages within which to introduce and handle a cast of
characters, manage a Plotline and numerous subplots, explore the Themeline, and
hope that in the end we have told a whacking good story. Unlike a novelist, we dont
have the freedom to go off for 20 pages, veering into the backstory of a character
because a script averages just 60 scenes from FADE IN to FADE OUT. As
screenwriters we are forced to focus our characters and their respective narrative
functions simply to survive the relentless push forward from page 1 to page 2 to page
3 and so on.

Therefore every character in a script must have a reason to exist.

Each character must influence the attitudes and actions of other characters.
Each character must contribute directly to the advancement of the plot.
Thus a key consideration when rewriting a script is to determine the following:

What is this characters narrative function?

If you cant figure that out, you have some work to do. If you can figure it out, then
you have another question to ask:

How does this characters narrative function fit in with the other characters?
Determining a characters narrative function may seem reductionist in nature and
it is, but in a unique way. You are not diminishing the uniqueness of a character, but
rather identifying their core essence. Everything about thembackstory, world view,
personality, voice, habits, beliefsshould be identifiably tied to their core essence.

What exactly is core essence? It is that critical aspect of a characters being that
defines who they are. It is a foundational part of their persona, that which lies at the
center of the psyche, and it can only be found inside the character, their Internal
World. Any writer who has engaged in even a small measure of character
development will have dealt with these type of questions:

What is driving this character?

What do they want? What do they need?
What is it they fear most?
What lies at the base of who they are?

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 10

We take all those queries and address them to the major characters in our story, and
if we keep drilling into them, we discover their core essence.
In a screenplay, their core essence is directly connected to their narrative function.
We see this clearly when dealing with the five primary character archetypes:
Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, Trickster:

Protagonist:
Almost always the central character in the movie. It is their goal, their
journey that creates the spine of the Plotline.
Nemesis:
The Nemesis provides an antagonist function in that they work in
opposition to the Protagonist. Generally their goal is the same as the
Protagonist or involves the same elements, only the Nemesis has a different
intent in mind.
Attractor:
Oftentimes a romance figure, the Attractor is an ally, one most intimately
connected with the Protagonists emotional growth.
Mentor:
Typically a teaching figure, the Mentor is an ally most directly connected with
the Protagonists intellectual development.
Trickster:
Often a sidekick character, the Trickster tests the Protagonists will,
shifting from ally to enemy, back and forth.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 11

For purposes of shorthand:

Each character tied to the Protagonist and his/her metamorphosis, this narrative
archetype common to almost all stories.

After your clean read, focus on characters. They are the heart, blood, body
and soul of your story. The more you engage them, understand them, and see the
story universe through each of their eyes, the more they will inform you what the
story is and should be about.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 12

THEME
Theme is much more than the moral of the story, an intellectual premise, or a central
idea, it is organic and dynamic arising from the emotional, psychological and
spiritual life of a story, conveying a storys multiple layers of meaning.

Good stories have plots and subplots, primary characters and secondary characters,
dialogue and subtext, actions and intentions, Plotline and Themeline. Why shouldnt
they have themes and sub-themes? Two potential ways to approach to dealing with
thematic material are:

Central Theme: The overriding meaning of the story that provides the unifying
glue to bind together the entire narrative.

Sub-Theme: A specific aspect or variation of the central theme that sheds a

distinctive light on the narratives significance.

As an example, lets consider The Silence of the Lambs...

Central Theme: To silence nightmares from the past, Clarice must confront them.
Sub-Themes:

Death It is her fathers death that sends Clarice down her life-path of
becoming an FBI agent; it is the deaths of Buffalo Bills victims that gets her
drawn into the case; it is the death of Buffalo Bill, killed by Clarice, that enables
her to silence the nightmares.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 13

 Transformation It is the clue Lecter gives Clarice that helps her to understand
Buffalo Bills criminal impulses; the moths (which represent the possibility of
change to the serial killer) tip off Clarice that she is in the house with Buffalo Bill;
it is her own growth from FBI agent-in-training to righteous angel of death that
gives her the power to defeat Buffalo Bill.
Father Her father was a sacrificial lamb, an innocent murdered by two
burglars, symbolized by the single lamb Clarice scooped up during that horrible
night on her uncles Montana farm, trying to save the lamb and in so doing,
symbolically her father.
Blood What Lecter knows is that Clarice must sacrifice Buffalo Bill and shed
his blood in order to wash away the guilt she feels at the death of her father.

Each of these themes provides a window into the heart and soul of the story. No
matter the size or scope, each is an entry point for viewers to find their own
emotional and psychological connection to the narrative. Whats more, Sub-Themes
support the Central Theme, amplifying its many varied aspects.

For your rewrite, create a master list of all themes present in your script.
Then sort through the list:

What is your storys Central Theme?

What are your storys Sub-Themes?

These may not be entirely clear to you. Dont worry.

Thematic content is often the last aspect of a story to reveal itself.
The main goal is simply to engage your thinking about what your story is about, what
you are trying to say, and most importantly

What is your storys emotional meaning?

Two ways to surface potential themes:
1. Explore the relationship of each Primary and Secondary Character to the
Protagonist. Oftentimes the nature of their respective narrative functions
suggests a theme.
2. Look for talismans (physical objects imbued with symbolic meaning).
Those, too, can convey themes.

This is a good way to delve into the possible levels of meaning in your story.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 14

STRUCTURE
Normally when people talk about a screenplays structure, they focus on the Plotline,
the positioning of major plot points and organization of sequences.
That is only half the story.

Structure is comprised of both the:

Plotline (External World) and the Themeline (Internal World).

Think about it: Is a movie simply a series of events in the External World, action we
see and dialogue we hear? If it is, it is inevitably a bad movie.
Events only impact an audience if they have meaning, and they only have meaning if
there is something else going on in the underlying emotional life of the story.
Every scene must have something going on in both parts of the screenplay universe:
External World and Internal World.
Therefore as a writer, you must think of screenplay structure as being comprised of
Plotline and Themeline.

How best to do that? In almost every story, it is the Protagonist character (or
characters) that drives this discussion. A Protagonist will almost invariably have a

Want (a Conscious Goal) and a Need (an Unconscious Goal).

Their Want largely exists in and shapes the Plotline.
Their Need largely exists in and shapes the Themeline.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 15

Because these two goals represent aspects of one character and eventually combine in
the storys final act, it is easy to grasp why the Protagonist is a key figure in creating
the spine of your screenplays structure.

As a result, every scene, every major Plotline point, and every sequence must in some
way be tied to the Protagonists twin goals of Want and Need.

So what approach to structure should you use when rewriting your script?
Since I believe there is no right way to write a script, I dont believe there is one
structural paradigm or formula.

I have my own take, what I call Narrative Throughline, but it is simply one
approach to structure, not the approach.

By the way, the sequence approach slots right into Narrative Throughline.

Whatever your take, when you rewrite your script, you need to pay attention to its
structure, both the events that occur in the External World and the movements that
take place in the Internal World. And this leads to the next consideration: Pace.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 16

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. With good reason.

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. This number is shrinking over the last decadeso
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 pages.
(Obviously, these numbers vary from script to script, genre to genre.) This means
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

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 17

(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 its 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 youre 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
doesnt, this will be one of your goals with a rewrite.
In the Themeline:
There is the dynamic momentum of a Protagonists meta-morphosis 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 the characters
attitudes in the Internal World which causes them to grow which in turns impacts their
actions. A little like this:

This is an ongoing dynamic that exists as part of the Protagonists movement through
the story, an organic interweaving of external stimuli and internal reactions resulting in
their metamorphosis.
Which is to say that 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 metamorphosisyou
can find a natural source of energy to build and sustain your storys pace.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 18

SCENE-BY-SCENE BREAKDOWN
Perhaps the best way to track a screenplays existing structure and its pace is to do a
scene-by-scene breakdown. It is exactly what it sounds like: Create a document, then
note every single scene in your script. For example: (from Shakespeare in Love)

14: Establishing shot (London). To avoid being tortured, Henslowe takes on Fennyman as
partner on Shakespeares new play.
45: Wills house. Henslowe visits Will who has not finished play. Will states his goal: Needs
to find his muse.
57: Street. Henslowe begs Will to finish the playto deaf ears.
710: Dr. Moths office. Will admits he has lost his gift of writing. Moth gives Will a bangle
to offer a woman to bring back Wills muse.
1013: Whitehall Palace. Will agrees to sell his new play to Burbage, potentially double-
crossing Henslowe.
1314: (contd): The Queen arrives. Will gives bangle to Rosaline.
1415: (contd): A comedy act to the Queens delight. Viola introduced. Lord Wessex enters
and notices Viola.
1516: (contd): Viola recites Wills words along with the actors revealing she is a fan of the
theater. Will has left to write.
1719: Violas room. Viola complains about custom of men playing ladies roles. Goal: I will
have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love.
1921: Street. Fennyman presses Henslowe about the play.
2123: Street. Will barges into Burbages place, only to find Rosaline having sex with Tilney.
Shes not his muse. Will burns the new pages hes written.
2326: Tavern. Will lies and tells Henslowe the play is done. Henslowe puts out the call for
actors.
2628: (contd): Will admits to Christopher Marlowe he hasnt written a word of the play.
Marlowe gives him some helpful tips for the story.
2831: Rose Theater. Auditions, but scant talent. Thomas Kent (Viola dressed as man)
auditions. Will is astonished at her talent.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 19

This is the most rudimentary version. For purposes of a rewrite, you want to include
more extensive information including:
Page numbers (as above)
The scenes location
A brief description of what happens in the scene
List the characters in the scene
Number of pages (down to the page)
What is the point of the scene as it relates to the Plotline?
What is the point of the scene as it relates to the Themeline?
How does the scene transition from the previous scene?
In addition, you should note each Major Plotline Point.

Here is an excerpt of a scene-by-scene breakdown of the opening sequence in the

Pixar movie UP! (it uses the minute count from the movie):

THE OPENING [11:30]

00:00:4000:02:35: Newsreel footage of Charles Muntz, The Spirit of Adventure, and

Paradise Falls. Watched by young Carl Frederickson in a movie theater.
Muntz accused of fabricating skeleton of The Monster of Paradise Falls. Muntzs goal: To
capture the beast alive.
Plotline point: Introduces two key characters, Carl and Muntz; establishes
Paradise Falls and the scandal related to The Monster of Paradise Falls.
Themeline point: Establishes that young Carl has the spirit of adventure.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 20

00:02:3500:05:05: Carl imagining himself as Muntz, then hears a voice: Adventure is
out there! From a rickety, abandoned house. Its Ellie, who is as big a fan of Muntz as Carl
is. (4:28: She gives him her grape soda pin and says, You and me, were in a club now.)
Trying to retrieve his balloon, Carl falls. Ambulance.
Plotline point: Introduces Ellie and intersects her with Carl; introduces the callback
line Adventure is out there; establishes the importance of balloons; leads up to
Carl falling and breaking his arm.
Themeline point: Provides an immediate connection between Ellie and Carl,
based on their mutual love of adventure and admiration for Muntz.
Scene transition: The voice-over narrator of the Muntz newsreel narrates Carls
adventures as he heads down the sidewalk, continuing the spirit of the newsreel.

00:05:0000:07:10: Carl in his room at night with broken arm. Ellie shows up with his
balloon and shares with Carl My Adventure Book. (Cross your heart!) Her goal: To go
to Paradise Falls. (6:35: Only I just dont know how Im going to get to PF.) Carl sees his
balloon. Thats it. Youll take us in a blimp. Swear youll do it. Cross your heart. Cross it!
And Carls first word: Wow.
Plotline point: Reinforces the importance of balloons; establishes Ellies My
Adventure Book; introduces the callback Cross your heart!; establishes Ellies
goal of getting to Paradise Falls; leads up to Ellie getting Carl to promise he will
take Ellie there in a blimp.
Themeline point: Carl is smitten by Ellie.
Scene transition: Because Carl broke his arm, Ellie shows up to make him feel
better and uses a balloon floating into Carls room to make her entrance.

00:07:1000:11:30: Carl and Ellies life together montage. Key plot points: (A) Wedding.
(B) He gets a job at a zoo selling helium balloons. (C) They want to have children, but find
out they cant. (D) Set sights on Paradise Falls, but those plans laid aside due to a series of
financial setbacks. (E) Now old, Carl plans to surprise Ellie with tickets to go to PF, but
Ellie dies.
Plotline point: Shows Carl and Ellies married life; demonstrates how they
constantly had to set aside their plans to go to Paradise Falls; leads up to Ellies
death.
Themeline point: Carls full life with Ellie comes to a crushing end with his wifes
passing, leaving him alone.
Scene transition: Carls first wordWow!and the balloon popping leads to the
flash of a camera light at the wedding of Carl and Ellie.
Major Plotline Point (The Opening): Ellies death. Carl has made a promise to Ellie to
take her to Paradise Falls because of her childhood dream of building a clubhouse right
next to the falls. How to fulfill that promise now that his wife is gone?

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 21



So my suggestion:
Create a scene-by-scene breakdown of your entire script.
Yes, this is a lot of work, but three things:
1. Analyzing your script this way will help you track the Plotline and Themeline.
2. Analyzing your script this way will help you track the scripts pace.
3. You can use this document as the basis of your Revision Outline.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 22

REVISION OUTLINE
Thus far in the rewrite process, you have done the following:

A Clean Read: You have gone through your script page by page, line by line,
highlighting areas you think work and those that need work.

Character and Theme: You aggregated a list of all your storys characters
and themes, then analyzed each of them in relation to the overall story.

Structure and Pace: You created a Scene-By-Scene Breakdown to give you a

visual perspective on your scripts structure (Plotline & Themeline) and its
pace (scene to scene, transitions).

Now you are ready for the final step in preparation for your rewrite:
Revision Outline.

Im not going to wade into any suggestions in terms of structural paradigms.

Whatever screenwriting guru or personal approach to which you subscribe, great.
Use that as a way of wrangling your outline into shape.

One area I will emphasize is this: Subplots.

The key to subplots is to track the relationships between Primary characters and
Secondary characters, especially those who intersect with the Protagonist.
Here are some examples of subplots in movies:

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 23

The Wizard of Oz
Plotline: Dorothy travels to Oz and seeks to return home to Kansas.
Subplots
Dorothys relationship with Hunk (Scarecrow), Hickory (Tin Man), and Zeke
(Cowardly Lion)
Dorothys relationship with Auntie Em
Dorothys relationship with Miss Gulch (Wicked Witch of the West)
Dorothys relationship with Professor Marvel (Wizard of Oz)

The Apartment
Plotline: Baxter pursues career advancement by allowing co-workers to use his
apartment for their romantic trysts.
Subplots
Baxters relationship with Dobisch, Kirkeby, Eichelberger, and Vanderhoff
Baxters relationship with Fran Kubelik
Baxters relationship with Dr. Dreyfus
Frans relationship with Sheldrake
Sheldrakes relationship with his wife
Miss Olsens story
Frans brother-in-law Karl Matuschkas story

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 24

The Dark Knight
Plotline: Batman versus Joker for the soul and safety of Gotham City.
Subplots
Bruce Waynes relationship with Rachel
Bruce Waynes relationship with Harvey Dent
Bruce Waynes relationship with Alfred
Bruce Waynes relationship with Lucius
Jokers relationship with Harvey Dent
Rachels relationship with Harvey Dent
Batmans relationship with Gordon
Jokers relationship with the local mob
Laus story
Coleman Reeses story

Identify each of your storys subplots.

Make sure each has a Beginning, Middle and Ending arc. This does not mean the
subplot only has three scenesa subplot can have as many as 10 or even more
scenes. Rather Beginning, Middle and Ending means there is a natural flow of the
scenes in the subplot that advance its particular narrative.

Once you have figured out the B-M-E of each subplot, then you can work on cross-
cutting between them in your Revision Outline.

Using your scene-by-scene breakdown as your starting point, you work and rework
and rework some more your story.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 25

Me? I start from the beginning and tell the story over and over until it flows one
scene to the next. If something isnt clicking, I work on that section of the story until
it does work.

Bottom line: The Revision Outline should feel like a movie.

When it does, you are ready to start rewriting your script pages from FADE IN.

Bring the same energy and drive you did to pounding out your first draft because
you know what? Your second draft is going to need rewriting as well. But if youve
done your homework, you will be getting closer and closer to where your script needs
to be.

This entire process from Clean Read to Revision Outline?

You can do that for a third, fourth, whatever number of drafts.

Finally you are getting there, your script feels like its on its way.

Time for the next step: The Polish.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 26

POLISH
What is a script polish? To my knowledge, theres nothing codified in Hollywood, but
generally I think its safe to say the term gets used to refer to this: Taking a script that
is fundamentally sound in terms of characters and structure, and improving it in one
or more areas, bringing it to final draft status (or nearly so). But what does it mean
in actual practice? Here are six areas to focus on in a script polish:

Tighten the script

Almost every script, no matter how many drafts youve written, can benefit from
being tightened up. If you are honest with yourself and can look at your pages with
an objective eye, you will almost certainly find elements you can trim or even cut
altogether.
Start with scenes. Go through every one of them and ask some
fundamental questions: Is this scene absolutely necessary? Why? What is the
point of the scene? Does it accomplish that? Could I enter the scene later?
Could I exit the scene sooner? Does the scene advance the plot? Is the scene
entertaining? If you hesitate answering any of these questions with a positive
response, you should unpack that scene and see if there is a way to do it better,
or perhaps drop it entirely.
Move onto dialogue. You can ask a similar litany of questions for every
side of dialogue. Is this absolutely necessary? Why? What is the point of the
side? Does it accomplish that? Could I make it work better by trimming it?
Could I make the scene work better by cutting the side? Is the side
entertaining? Again if you stumble in answering any of these questions
positively, consider your options regarding that dialogue.
Be especially tough when it comes to exposition. In general, most
writers tend to include too much in the way of information and facts. Less is
almost always more when it comes to dialogue that conveys exposition.
Work on Pace: There is no set paradigm to coordinate a scripts pace, but
perhaps the closest lens through which to assess a storys tempo is the idea of
balance.

Whereas Act One may be heavier with exposition and character introductions,
basically setting up the story universe, Act Three will generally tilt more
toward action as the narrative propels toward the Final Struggle and
resolution.
Scenes come in different types: Action, Interaction, Exposition, Revelation
being four major ones. It stands to reason you dont want to stack up five
Exposition scenes back to back, then four Interaction scenes, rather balance
them out: An Action scene, followed by an Interaction scene, an Exposition

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 27

 scene, followed by a Revelation scene. This way you create a tempo that has
variety in its flow.
Of particular concern are so-called talking head scenes wherein two or
more characters stand or sit and exchange dialogue. Some times, this is
precisely what a script needs, however too many talking head scenes can slow
the pace of a story. Plus they are inherently not cinematic.
Pace is one of the more nuanced aspects of screenwriting and for a
professional writer, much of it derives from their instinct, they just feel the
rhythm of a story. What you can do in a polish is read through the script once
strictly focused on pace, how it moves. If at any time, you feel it drags or
conversely moves too fast, consider switching the order of scenes, or re-
conceiving scenes so they play at a different tempo.

Track the emotion

You should have a clear sense of your Protagonists metamorphosis, typically playing
out in four movements: Disunity, Deconstruction, Reconstruction, Unity. Are the
Protagonists actions and reactions in each section of the script consonant with his/
her metamorphosis arc?
Review each subplot that consists of a relationship between a key character
and the Protagonist. Do their scenes together flow naturally as part of the
Protagonists metamorphosis?
Consider the emotion that is in play in each scene. Is it too much, perhaps
over the top or even melodramatic? Conversely maybe you havent mined
enough of the emotional depth of the moment. Does a scene play the emotion
too on the nose or in a clichd fashion? Could you approach the emotion in a
surprising way, even to the point of going at it entirely opposite as might be
expected?
Do not underestimate the importance of a scripts emotional content. No matter how
great or entertaining the events of your plot, if they do not mean anything of
substance to the characters, they will mean even less to a reader.

Punch up the dialogue

The first pass at polishing a scripts dialogue is to make sure each line plays to the
storys genre. If you have a comedy, you want to maximize opportunities for humor
in your dialogue. If its a horror story, then you want to focus on creating scares. If its
an action script, work on making the dialogue as action-packed as possible.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 28

 This is also an area where you can impact a storys pace. How?
Because no story is solely played as a single genre throughout, rather there are
moments in stories, regardless of genre, where there is humor, drama, scares,
and so on. Thus if you are writing an action script, you may need humor to
break up the tension. Sometimes one good line of dialogue can provide that
release. On the other hand, if you are writing a comedy, you may need a
moment for some characters to get real to remind the reader of the emotional
stakes of the story, so perhaps a few sides with some dramatic edge to them.
And of course, you will want to do a subtext check. Sometimes you
need to write dialogue that conveys precisely what the character means to say.
However it is often more interesting to hear characters not say what they
mean, only convey their truth through subtext. So spot-check every side of
dialogue to see if the scene or moment benefits from the character avoiding
telling the truth in an on the nose way, choosing (consciously or not) to use an
oblique or roundabout way of communicating.

Highlight Themes
This is something most writers will definitely work on in a script polish as the
multitude of themes in a story often tend to emerge late in the process. Here again
you can zero in on subplot relationships to the Protagonist as each one will typically
have a slightly different flavor or angle on the storys central theme.
Ask yourself: does this subplot relationship have a theme? If so,
what is it? If not, am I missing something deeper going on with these
characters? Can I articulate this sub-theme? Does it support and expand the
meaning of the central theme?
Special tools of the trade are talismans - physical objects that take on
symbolic meaning. You may well have surfaced some object(s) in your story,
which are sitting there, waiting to be used to help enhance a story theme.
Think about the snow globe in Citizen Kane, Harvey Dents coin in The Dark
Knight, or the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings. If a picture is worth a
thousand words, a talisman can translate into the equivalent of multiple sides
of dialogue, saying much more visually than anything you can write through a
characters words.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 29

Make the script more cinematic
Before you finish your script polish, do a read-through where you look at each
moment strictly through the perspective of its cinematic potential.
Have you maximized visual opportunities for your story?
Are there ways to approach scenes that conjure up images in the mind of a
reader? Are there visual elements that have emerged in your writing that you
can tie together to create an imagematic motif?
Think of the color red in American Beauty or the use of water in Inception.

Track the transitions between each scene.

Are there ways you can make those jumps using visuals such as this incredibly deft
cut in Lawrence of Arabia.
Visual-to-visual transitions cannot only smooth segues from one scene to another,
they can also enhance a scripts cinematic feel.

With a script polish, you are trying to take what doesnt work in a draft and make
it work, and take what works in your script and make it work better.

Your goal is to give your story a sheen of completeness that reflects the writers deep
immersion into the story and great care with which they have crafted the narrative.

You may think you are finally done. You are not.

You have one last set of steps in your writing adventure: The Final Edit.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 30

FINAL EDIT
For many writers, myself included, editing can be one of the most enjoyable
experiences in the script-writing process. You know your story is basically done and
that all the major elements work. Now all you are doing is putting on the finishing
touches, a worthy way of topping off all your hard work.

Here are some tips on how to do a final edit of your screenplay:

Character dialogue check

Print out all the dialogue of each character so you can read every side of an
individual character back to back (Final Draft, Movie Magic and Fade In should
allow you to do this). This way you can:

Check to see if you have any redundant sides.

Get a sense of that characters verbal rhythm and idioms.

Screenwriters often say you should be able to white out all the character
names in a script and be able to identify who is saying what based solely on
the specific tone and style of each side, reflecting that individual characters
personality and voice.
If after reading all of your dialogue you dont sense much difference, dig a bit
deeper into your characters, paying attention to how their individual persona
might affect the way they speak.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 31

Character introduction check
Read through the introductions of all your characters, especially your primary ones.
Remember: Whenever you introduce a character into a story, you have the right to
editorialize about them, describing some key aspect of their persona.
For example: Shrempf is a guy who has never gotten up on the right side of the bed gives
the reader some sense of the characters personality right from the get-go. This helps
a reader distinguish individuals from one another and provides a lens through which
they can interpret the characters.

Highlight verbs
One of the best ways you can make scene description come alive is by using active
verbs. Therefore go through your draft with a highlighter and mark every single verb,
then see if you can come up with better, stronger verbs.

Trimming Tricks of the Trade:

You may very well discover that your script is too long (at least that happens to me
all the time). There are some trimming tricks I have learned over the years that
enable a writer to cut pages without cutting substance. I have posted about this on
my blog, Go Into The Story - here are those links to save you some page space:
Lose The Orphans
Minimize Parentheticals
Drop Transitions
Pseudo-sluglines
An added benefit: Less black ink, more white space - makes pages read more cleanly.

Spellcheck and beyond

Obviously you should do a spellcheck, but there are word uses that a computerized
program will not catch. For example: Their / Theyre / There, and Its / Its.

This is fundamentally about proofreading.

If you have become so familiar with the content of your script that your eyes simply
dont catch these type of mistakes, here is where you can enlist a friend or loved one
to help you out.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 32

Read your script aloud
The very final step is to go through the entire script where you read it aloud. Any line
of scene description or dialogue that causes you to stumble, consider: Is there a
better, more readable way of writing it? Screenplays put a premium on lean, tight
writing. A final read-through can help to achieve that end.

Now you are ready to send your precious screenplay out into the world.
If you have spent the time coming up with a great story concept
If you have immersed yourself in the life of your characters
If you have brainstormed your story and really dug into its narrative possibilities
If you have devoted sufficient focus on prep-writing
If you have cracked your storys structure
If you have tapped into your storys soul
If you have pounded out a first draft that caught up the storys energy
If you have rewritten it paying attention to characters, theme, structure, pace
If you have rewritten the script multiple times, making it better and better
If you have done a final revision so that it all clicks
If you have edited the script so its a clean, professional read
Then you have put yourself in the best possible position to succeed as a screenwriter.
And now after you celebrate completing this script

Its time to write another screenplay!

The more you write, the better you get.
The more you write, the better your chances of selling a script.
Good luck!

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 33

Go Into The Story And Find The Animals
This mantra is both the name of my blog, and my wish for you.
It derives from a conversation I had many years ago with my then three year-old son.
It went pretty much like this:
ME
Hey, Luke, Im starting to write a
new script tomorrow. And its funny,
but no matter how many times I start
a new story, I get a bit, uh,
nervous about it. Got any, you know,
advice for your dad?

LUKE
(without hesitation)
Go into the story and find the
animals.

God as my witness, thats what my son said.

Now who knows what Luke was really thinking at the time. Stupidly I didnt follow
up with him, flummoxed as I was at his comment. I remember mulling it over and
thinking that the whole idea of going into a story is precisely what a writer does,
immersing themselves in a narrative universe that they create. That has always
seemed just right to me, both in its simplicity and profundity, which is frankly why I
named this blog GoIntoTheStory.

But over time, its the other part in which Ive discovered more and more layers of
meaning.

Start with the verb find. Is there any word more appropriate to describe the
writing process? Here are some of its definitions:
to come upon by chance:
Doesnt that sound like brainstorming?
to locate, attain, or obtain by search or effort:
Doesnt that sound like research?
to discover or perceive after consideration:
Doesnt that sound like what happens when we mull over our story?
to feel or perceive:
As we go into the story, we become more emotionally connected to it.
to become aware of, or discover:
The biggie, where as explorers we uncover a storys hidden gems.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 34

Then there is the animals.

Im almost sure what Luke was thinking about was how a childrens story so often is
habituated by animals. Thus in his eyes, my task was probably pretty simple:
Go find the animals. They are your characters.

But what if we think about it more symbolically?

Animals can be both domesticated and wild. So some things we discover as
we go into the story are what we might expect (domesticated). Other times
were surprised, even shocked by ideas and thoughts that spring to mind
(wild).
Animals are alive, organic, and intuitive beings. So are our storys characters.
Throughout human history, animals have come to mean something in
stories. A fox is sly and cunning. A crow in many cultures signifies death. An
owl is wise. Per Jung and others who study myth and psychoanalysis, animals
can serve as conduits into the mind of the dreamer.

Which reminds me of something I read about a movie director who in prepping to

make a movie gave each of the actors their own animal token as something they could
reference in interpreting their character.

Im sure if you think about it, you could probably come up with other shades of
meaning for the mantra.

I just know that this ones my favorite mantra of all because of its source.

There you have it: My approach to rewriting a screenplay and my wish for you.

I hope that you have resonated with at least one of them. Use them to help you focus
your thoughts and bring clarity to your writing process.

But for now and always, my wish for each of you is the same sentiment as once
uttered by a cherubic youngster with bright blue eyes and a look of deep intention in
his face:

Go into the story and find the animals.

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 35

Resources + Links
Go Into The Story: https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/

Screenwriting Master Class: http://screenwritingmasterclass.com/

DePaul School of Cinematic Arts: http://www.cdm.depaul.edu/about/Pages/School-

of-Cinematic-Arts.aspx

Zero Draft Thirty Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/

731218807011913/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoIntoTheStory

Email: [email protected]

Special thanks to Franklin Leonard and the entire Black List team. In the 12 years of
its existence, the Black List has evolved into the single most important screenwriting
brand in Hollywood. Their commitment to shining a spotlight on the craft of
screenwriting and notable screenplays, and to create new avenues for outsiders to
break into the movie and TV business is a vision I share. Im proud to contribute to
the Black Lists efforts through Go Into The Story and serve as a mentor at their
outstanding screenwriter labs.

For more information about the Black List: https://blcklst.com/

Scott Myers / Rewriting A Screenplay 36