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“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…
