However, you should try and keep this learning process as organised as possible. Writing your first draft is a learning curve for you in terms of finding your script’s shape and content. However, you should make sure this isn’t through accident or taking your eye off the ball. Of course, your intentions might change as you discover more about your story and characters, for example. Are you straying from them without meaning to?.Then keep checking back in as you are writing that you are staying true to what you intended. Make a note of your initial intentions with your theme, story and characterisation. However, when starting out you should have at least a basic understanding of your key characters, plot and theme. Keep Checking InĪs discussed, every writer’s process is different. So what to remember when actually writing your first draft… 2. However you do it, don’t rush your script out before it’s ready. Take a break from it and look at it with fresh eyes, ask trusted friends or colleagues, pay for script coverage and feedback. Whatever your screenwriting process, one thing is clear – your first draft is not for your ultimate intended audience. Perhaps you want your first draft to be more concrete, acknowledging that there will be issues to fix but wanting the primary core to be in place.
However, that might not be your writing process. It could just be a skeleton of the desired final product, with the basic essentials of character, plot, themes and tone in place.It doesn’t have to look like how you imagine the final product.With this mind, your first draft can look however you need it to. Ideally, you should not be sending your first draft out to anyone but those whose advice you trust the most. So what is your first draft for? Essentially it should be for you. In fact, many such places will specify that they are not looking for first drafts but relatively accomplished, polished works. Your first draft is not what you be should sending to agents, companies or competitions. The meaning and purpose of ‘first draft’. There are a number of essential steps to remember when approaching your first draft.
WHATS A ROUGH DRAFT HOW TO
In essence, your first draft should be where you see what works, what doesn’t, and how to move forward to the next draft. Your screenplay’s first draft is an important stepping stone in figuring out the project’s potential, its biggest limitations and what it might look like to an eventual audience. But your first draft is almost certainly only the first stage in the evolution of your screenplay. It might not be what you want to hear after months, maybe years, of painstaking screenwriting work. Your First Draft : 9 Essential Steps to Getting it Right