Film Courage: What makes the first draft of a screenplay crucial to a writer success?
Mark Sanderson, Screenwriter/Author: Hmmmm? I'm glad you asked because there's a lot of theories going around that the
first draft can be crap you know and it has to be and I don't believe that it
has to be crap absolutely not and Ernest Lehman who'd the great six-time
nominated Academy Award six-time nominated screenwriter who did West Side
Story, North by Northwest, Sweet Smell of Success
he said the first draft is dangerously important because it's difficult now
this next part is paraphrasing to totally change something into another
direction once you've had it down and it is difficult it's like building a house
and then having the walls don't quite have the right structure and the windows
so you know you have to go back in and now you're dismantling things to try to
rewrite it and everybody has their own way of working which is fantastic
whatever's best for you but I always think why would you waste the time that
it takes to write a first draft and know that it's not going to be good and know
that 60 70 percent of it is going to be thrown out or rearranged or maybe not
even used to get a kernel of of something that can be used and I always
say by the way when you start working which is the intent I suppose of
screenwriters is to work meaning they're being hired to write scripts that you
know going to me we're produced in two movies is that you can't turn in a
crappy first draft you'll be fired so on assignment jobs my first draft has to be
really pretty good to work with it can't be like well that was a nice pass you
know now we're behind in development you know sort of and so you want I've
trained myself over the years to really it had to have the first draft to be
really solid because the outline was really solid and that's another
discussion about outlines and also people well I just wing it I just you
know I sit down I write a script and then you get lost in page 40 and you
can't really see the rest of where you're going you know and so it becomes
a muddled mess and it's like what you know they and I know it sounds that it's
like some kind of formula like well just do this this and this but sort of when
you start writing professionally there are steps that's how you're paid to it
steps so we turn in the first draft and then we have notes and then we execute
the second and we move on and on so yes the first draft I believe is really
important you know and it doesn't have to be perfect there shouldn't be any
pressure like I can't write it because I know it's bad but if you're if you've
already done like really the heavy lifting in the outline then the first
draft Chicago just kind of be a breeze because you've already kind of in a way
seeing the film worked it out before you've ever gone two pages you know
pages of the actual screenplay and I have found that every time because the
more time you work on the outline the more details and and again now people
are gonna say it stifles my creativity there's no room there's complete room
for freedom and creativity but you have a safety net you're not falling off that
high wire and dropping down the canyon into the river below your the boom you
you know you've got the net that captures you and so many things come out
while I'm writing the script that I never thought of in the outline because
I'm in that world and I have that that that room to play and go this way but I
know what's coming next because I've already thought of it you know kind of
thing so the first draft I think is really important just to play devil's
advocate what if I say well I'm already hesitant as a writer I already don't
believe in my ability so if I do a quote vomit draft that helps me sit down and
and and realize okay wait maybe this isn't that bad and if I couldn't do that
vomit draft then I wouldn't write hmm okay it's to me it's kind of like
rolling the dice I suppose I don't know mama Dean I don't like vomiting I don't
know okay I get it I understand but my point again
hammer back there's no vomit draft when you start working I haven't experienced
it maybe some people have they'll get pages I'll see in a month you know do
whatever you want to do the investors don't care the network has no idea what
you're doing because it's just you know so as I say writing specs I believe is a
training ground right because that's how you learn to write bad spec after bad
spec thing becomes a good spec and next time you learn from this bump up and the
notes and how to execute notes that's how you start learning how to write
screenplays because you write bad spec you learn from your mistakes you get
notes you take you know the blows and you come back stronger next time what
not to do and you become a more efficient screenwriter rather than
wasting time you're not going to be able to waste time when you're working
professionally you're going to be under a contract and I know I'm coming in from
that angle but it's the only angle I can come from because that's my experience
as of the last 20 years so I do remember when I was writing the specs in college
and you know I still write specs but it's different because they're on my own
time you know and and there's no pressure there but if you've never sold
anything you know you again I suppose I guess we could have the argument with
you know but I'm just saying I think it's great to train yourself now to sort
of be in more structured if you're a writer who wants to work in the
Hollywood system Hollywood system meaning a producer hires you to write a
screenplay or they hire you there to buy your screenplay you're gonna have to do
rewrites on it and things like that so if you hired an architect and they give
you this farm a draft of the blueprints it probably is not going to fly
Hollywood and there are like oh yeah look at my other homes you know and I
just not the way it work man you know I like to just wing in you're like why is
the window facing up I don't understand you know what are we looking at so I
think it's yeah I think and I know people just have to I wish I could just
vomit a script out you know it where it's like soup to nuts it's it's all
done it's perfect but that vomiting can be done in the outline or you're like
wow making those mistakes there be where you ever go to the screenplay and
then like I said the screenplay should be a pleasurable experience it should be
like huh and today I did find more pages you know what because I know what I'm
doing I've lived with the characters I'm not first seeing them on this blank page
of the screenplay I've I've lived with them in the outline
I I know what's gonna happen I know the intent of the scene and stuff again
always comes out brilliant stuff that you go that would be great
because you're living in that world you're not suddenly trying to make it up
as you go you can do that in the outline nobody's gonna see the outline I mean
eventually they will see it but what I'm saying is that's like the pre blueprint
you know the pre the pre screenplay is the outline and the more time you spend
on that story the easier the scripts gonna be to write and and and you're
gonna know more about it you're gonna see the story in your head and to
continue that not every - every time that the outlines accepted and you go to
script let's say are they gonna like the script either and that happens to all
the time happens recently where it's like yeah but you agreed to didn't we
agree to the outline but when they see the finished product this part doesn't
work they thought it did and so you know it's like if the house was built then
you go well and the blueprints I kind of liked that but now I don't
so that happens - you have to be prepared for that and other times
there's hardly I've done a script where they're like we hardly have any notes
you're like oh my gosh that's never happened I think because of the solid
outline