Last week, with seconds to spare, I met my deadline for a few projects. It was brutal, exhausting, and left me with no desire to write anything for the rest of my life. You know, pretty average stuff for me. Then, after a day of relaxation (read: completely hating everything I've ever written up to that point), I got started on my next project. I'd actually already written the outline for this script, so I felt ready to rock. And then, inspiration struck.
I was going to have to re-write the whole damn thing again.
We've talked about Page One Re-Writes before. They suck, there's no two bones about it, but sometimes they are the only way to fully realize a story.
In this case, it is exactly what we're going to do.
So, let's talk about the process of coming to this decision. It's not like I had an idea and just ran with it. I do vet my crazy thoughts before committing to them. In this case, it started with a little late night inspiration. At about midnight, I had a revelation about my main character. I loved it, I knew it was a good story beat, so I ran to my computer and wrote it down in an email, and sent that to future Adam.
You can accomplish the same thing with a notepad, but I've been known to forget my notepad.
So the next day, I open my email and voila, a new idea was waiting. I reviewed my outline, saw that I liked this new version better, and copied the whole thing over.
But then, as is often the case, tragedy struck.
NONE of my story beats worked with the new opening. Worse still, I realized how terrible those story beats were to begin with. So now, after hours of work, I'm back to square one. But, at this point, I at least had a killer opening.
Don't be afraid of re-writes, even if they completely kill your momentum. Your story is better served by your efforts.
And now, as a bonus for you loyal readers (hi, mom), I've included a new script in the Samples section: Lucifer - In the Valley of Death.