character

Okay, so let's look at a finished screenplay that you want to send out for some cleaning. The first thing I do is give it to close friends, both of whom are brutally honest. They won't let me get away with much. One is a director and the other is a writer.

Then I begin to mark the screenplay with my red zebra ready too mark. Over the years of writing and doing rewrites on other projects I've learned two things about the polish and rewrite. They are almost always about charactr and clarification.

There's a common expression used often that says; "Writing is rewriting." But what does that mean exactly? Checking for typo's, Day For Night, getting opinions for friends? Maybe some of that. But what really is going to make your screenplay better are the two things I mentioned above.

But before I go there, there's another trap to avoid and that involves showing work to someone else. Friends tend to tell a writer that it's either wonderful or needs work and this often relates to how envious the critic is or how much they think they know. Take compliments with a bit of doubt, they're nice but might be way off.

Superstitions and routines are common amongst film people, especially writers and actors. I always finish a work-for-hire at least a couple of days before it's due. Then I tell the producer that I might go over a few days because I want to make it tighter by "punching" it up. They like that and feel like they're being given more than what they're paying for.

You also need to be able to accept good advice even if you disagree, at least consider it. My usual reaction to anyone reading to anyone reading my work and having doubts about it is to say they're wrong.

But I've learned to wait at least 24 hours to see if maybe they are right. And most of the time they are, it's just a little harder having to face the fact that I was wrong.

And I hate to be wrong.