“Get the damn thing done!”
The one unalterable truth about writing a first draft.
I lied. When I wrote that thing about “There are no screenwriting rules”…
Actually there is one.
It’s about first drafts. They are of such importance, I break my own rule about there not being any screenwriting rules by allowing this one rule. And here it is:
Get the damn thing done!
You have to start somewhere. And one of the most fundamental values of having a first draft in hand is it gives you something on which you can work. Your story is no longer vapor, an illusion, some fantasy flitting about in your mind.
Rather a first draft is a tangible object you can print out and feel in your hands… but only when you get to FADE OUT.
Moreover if the adage “writing is rewriting” is true — and it is — then it is imperative to get to that rewriting part of the process. And logic dictates you cannot get to that phase until you have gotten through the first draft.
Well, technically you can rewrite along the way when doing a first draft. Or go back and rewrite what you’ve written starting at Page 1… but that path is wrought with peril. Because a kind of inertia can set in where a pattern emerges like this…
Go back to Page 1. Tinker with the opening. Rewrite. Go back to Page 1. Tinker some more. Back to Page 1…
That’s not rewriting. That’s perfectionism. There is a place for that… but in your final draft, not in the first draft process.
Do not expect perfection… because your first draft is going to be flawed no matter what.
Indeed if you embrace the spirit of a first draft — Get the damn thing done! — that should free you up to pound it out.
You’ve done the hard work of finding as much of the story as you can during prep. Now it’s all about putting words down, scene by scene, page by page, from FADE IN to FADE OUT.
Nothing. Else. Matters.
The first draft is a journey of discovery where no matter what your opinion of the pages are, you find essential truths about your story… what works… what doesn’t.
Keep moving forward even if what you’re writing feels like utter shit.
Finally there’s this: Finishing a first draft is an enormous psychological accomplishment. Because let’s face it, the greatest joy of writing is having written. When you type FADE OUT for the first time in your story-crafting process, you will have written something. In the process, you will have beaten back the Hectoring Voices Of Negativity Inside Your Head.
What are you thinking? Don’t write this story, it’s ridiculous? Who are you trying to kid anyway? Don’t write today, it’s beautiful outside, let’s go play! You are never going to get anywhere with this story!
When you type F-A-D-E-O-U-T, each letter is like a hammer blow to The Voices’ ugly skulls.
Take that, ya’ bastards!!!
So when it comes to this first draft you are writing, remember the only screenwriting rule I believe ought to exist:
Get the damn thing done! Get the damn thing done!!
GET THE DAMN THING DONE!!!!!!!!!
