Writing Screenplays...And who does it?

[duggie walker]

I'd also add that it's almost as telling to hear that people have written dozens of screenplays. The bad news is that once you've finished a screenplay, you need to write it again and again and again. Generally speaking, all first drafts are - at the very least - shallow, if not downright bad.

It'll probably take at least 2/3 drafts to get a screenplay to a point whereby nobody notices its problems on a first reading. But there's another level after that - your screenplay will be subjected to a huge amount of scrutiny and rigour, not just from the director and actors but from every other HOD on the production. It needs to be able to stand up to that kind of analysis.

You need to find a way through to a very deep, solid draft - one that stands up to scrutiny and one that meets/ exceeds the very highest standards you can imagine of yourself. Writing that draft can be even more tortuous than writing the first draft. It can only happen when you truly know your characters and the world of the film intimately, immersively and with full mastery. This is the draft where you are brutally honest with yourself about its failings - every plot hole, every convenience and cliche - and you do the hard work necessary to sort them.

Sadly, this is the draft that rarely gets done in Hollywood, and why so many films that look good on paper end up not working in the end.