Last looks
I handed in a script today, and thought it might be helpful to talk through my best practices when finishing up a draft. I don’t always do all of these — but I get nervous if I’ve skipped one.
1. Print it out.
There are mistakes you’re only going to catch on paper. So print it. I like to do two-up (side-by-side) printing to save paper, but your eyes might prefer full size.
Circle mistakes with a colored pen so you’ll see them. In addition to typos, look for any bit of redundant description or needless fluff. You can almost always squeeze a page out of a 120-page script.
2. Make changes all at once.
It’s tempting to fix mistakes as you catch them, but you’re likely to miss things if you’re constantly switching between error detection and error correction. Sit at the computer and go through page by page, fixing each problem you’ve found. As you go, you may spot ways to improve page breaks and other formatting niceties.
3. Fix the title page.
This is the step I often forget, resulting in mis-dated drafts and re-exported .pdfs. If I’m doing multiple versions of a draft — for example, one with starred changes, one without, I’ll make sure the title page indicates this.
4. Save this draft and email it to yourself.
Yes, you should have multiple backup strategies. But the self-addressed email will always work, and can be accessed from wherever you find yourself.
5. Export a .pdf — then check it.
These days, you almost always “hand in” a draft as a .pdf by email. But make sure it actually looks right, complete with title page. If you’re friendly with the assistant on the other end, ask her to check if there’s anything you’re at all worried might print strangely, such as a title page font1 or starred changes in the right margins.
- Yes, you can use a font other than Courier for the title page. But I rarely do anymore. ↩
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September 9th, 2009 at 5:19 am
I always backup everything to Gmail drafts after every 200-1000 words or so… among other backup methods :)
September 9th, 2009 at 5:20 am
That’s the funny thing with the paper, it’s easier to read, I think the constant glow of the computer screen makes thinking less clear. It’s great when you print it out and you can actually feel your work in your hands. It makes it feel the so much more real. John, maybe you could, if you have not already, do a post on conflicting notes.
September 9th, 2009 at 6:20 am
Great tips. I’ve got to try printing two-up. I’m wary of not catching format errors, though.
September 9th, 2009 at 6:48 am
I must confess, I’m having problems with printed drafts… well, I print my draft, then I start to do the corrections on paper. But as soon as I start editing page by page from paper to screen, I usually reach a point where I’ve corrected half of my printed draft and do the rest on screen.
Then, when it comes to the third draft, I only work in front of the screen and realize that the first part, I actually did with paper and screen reads pretty well and the second half, I only did in front of the screen, needs a refinement.
Eventually, a printed version makes you feel good. The big pile in your hands feel just right… but not right enough to say it’s completely finished. That’s the point where the struggle between state-of-the-art (computer) and old-fashioned (paper) techniques begins.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:13 am
What does “starred changes” mean?
September 9th, 2009 at 8:13 am
I periodically save whatever I’m working on to Dropbox (http://www.getdropbox.com). With that and Time Machine, I have multiple copies in different places, which is always reassuring.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:24 am
what a timely posting! i’m back to working with Final Draft after using Movie Magic for my last couple jobs (it’s TV, so you have to use what the show uses), and just went to export my first full script as a PDF… and the formatting was way off! Tons of extra line spaces and other odd elements.
What’s really weird — if I create a PDF from the print dialog box, it’s fine (but sans title page). but when i save as a PDF, it’s glitchy. I’m using FD 6… anyone else having this issue? or is this my computer’s passive-aggressive way of saying: upgrade your Final Draft, dude!
September 9th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Ruckus,
They’ll put a star in the right hand column of every line that’s changed when you’re doing multiple drafts. So someone who doesn’t want/need to read the whole thing can see exactly what changed. A prop guy might not care about a line of dialog, but he will care if you change the .44 Magnum Revolver to a .50 Desert Eagle Pistol.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:58 am
I have found, oddly enough, that it is actually easier to spot typos in an exported PDF than it is in an FDR doc.
September 9th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Congrats! All great advice. Murphy’s Law of proofreading says there’s always one typo I’ll miss on every reading, until I’ve just clicked “send”… then, as I give the printout one last proud flip-through before tossing it in a drawer, my eye randomly lands on that page and it jumps out at me.
Usually a line of dialog where I’ve mistakenly used the villain’s name instead of the hero’s.
September 9th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Great, and for me, timely, too … I did everything you mention in this post JUST last night (handing a script in today) and it’s of no small comfort to hear your last look process, so thank you for sharing.
Even after I do everything I can think of, that little voice in my head is usually trying to convince me that I must have forgotten something, I must have. Oh, that voice …
September 9th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Yeah, when you’re dealing with a 100+ page script, there’s no such thing as too much proofreading. You’ll catch a bunch of stuff on the first pass. You’ll catch more on the second. Maybe nothing on the third, but then you give it a fourth look and find a few more small-but-important flubs. And so on. Also, obviously, the more pairs of eyes you can recruit, the better.
September 9th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Eric B.,
I’ve found the same issues with saving PDFs in FD6. Usually catch two or three extra line spaces each time I do my last looks. Twice my top margin was pulled up a half inch on random pages! It’s the only thing that I don’t dig about that version.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I used to do this before publishing stories on Usenet, never mind professional submissions, and these are really good things. I’d add, read the print copy, correct, print again, read print copy, etc. as many times as you need to feel sure that this is what you wanted to say. When it is, use that PDF.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
ruckus: starred is a means to ID script revisions- with a star (*) at the margin of the line. if more revisions more stars are added (**, ***) to differentiate. very valuable now that, by pdf it, there is no ‘color’ pages per se -which is how you see changes on paper, in addition to the stars.
I’m curious to know how much time john sets aside for this. I assume half a day, at least. if not one day. I also wonder about the m.o. – assistant reads first, marks it, (and how, changes color on fd font?) then john revises, too? (which would make it at least 2 days) and if style changes are also tackled last-minute, or is it firmly restricted to typos and such.
September 9th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
This is almost exactly my process as well. I always make sure to have another person read drafts I turn in — I hate myself for typos.
My other step is to go through the script and set some of the page breaks by hand. Mainly where some widow or orphan line gets too close, I’ll cut the page by an extra line or two. And maybe once or twice per script, I’ll cheat on an extra line to keep a scene complete.
September 9th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Great post! I wish I printed out more of my drafts, but I’m always foiled by the cost consideration. If I put it through my printer, it will run out of ink and the replacements are too expensive, so I’m always stuck running to Kinkos…Any suggestions?
September 10th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Yo, John,
Somebody – I forgot who it was – said: There’s only two good days for a writer. One: The day you have the idea and everything feels new and promising and sparkling. Two: The day you hand in a finished draft… (meaning: the days in between can be quite miserable…)
So congratulations, John.
Here’s an additional advice. This is what I do right before all the things you mentioned: Have somebody you trust read the whole thing. Every writer should have some kind of feedback loop and use it, too. In my case, that’s my wife. And she’ll often notice little things that I didn’t see or that I felt in the back of my head but never really tackled – odd descriptions, fancy words that sound wrong, dialogue out of character. I don’t make her read each draft, but always the first draft of something. And: I often sit down with her when she reads it, to make sure emotions are where they are supposed to be…
Just my 2 cents.
Magnus
September 10th, 2009 at 7:09 am
I’m having a curious problem with the title page in FD8 at the moment. After printing and quitting I’ll come back to the script later on…only to find that the title page has reverted to some version of a Final Draft template, the same content but with the address at the bottom of the page back to being one-and-a-half-spaced. (Which pushes some of the information onto a second page.)
A typical kerfuffle coming only days after installing Snow Leopard – smooth enough, but you need to de-authorise Final Draft first or it robs you of one of your licenses and you have to contact the company to have them reset. I didn’t know that when I clicked the button, and it’s a big issue when you’re running two machines – laptop and desktop – since two lives is all you get.
September 10th, 2009 at 7:18 am
That Two-Up suggestion is great. I just tried it on two sample pages and it worked great. Cant believe I havent done this sooner!
Thanks John!
September 10th, 2009 at 9:06 am
So..was it Preacher?
September 10th, 2009 at 10:23 am
“These days, you almost always “hand in” a draft as a .pdf by email.”
I’m curious, does this mean that “readers” (I mean everybody who reads scripts, like assistants, agents, studio execs, producers etc.) now mostly read scripts on their screens?
Are stacks of paper scripts a thing of the past?
September 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Magnus- I always want to be near someone when they are reading my stuff for the first time, ie: the emotions are where they are supposed to be. The problem is, they are always distracted by my presence. It seems it is better to just rely on their notes and stay away from them while reading it.
You can ask them if their emotions were in check. It’s best not let them get distracted.
September 10th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
John,
Ever used MMS’s Streamline plugin? (It searches the script for potential page-saving changes). I’ve used it on a number of drafts and it really works.
September 10th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
@ Brian -
well, I guess after so many years of marriage, my wife is finally no longer distracted by my presence…
To be honest – when she reads my stuff I’ll pretend to do dishes or read a book on the other side of the sofa. But of course, I’m really watching her read. She on the other hand knows this but pretends to not notice…
Magnus
September 11th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Nothing beats paper, and I go to paper after the first solid draft (and all solid drafts in between), because I’ve found it makes a huge difference in the quality of the draft that follows. However, I hate inputting all those handwritten changes.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
The advice I’d add is this: if at all possible, marry a skilled editor. That’s what I did. Works like a charm.
September 11th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I go one more step on the self-e-mailed draft. I have a Yahoo e-mail address that is specifically for sending myself drafts and nothing else. Since I use my personal e-mail address for all kinds of communication, I wanted to have one spot where every single version of all my projects could be found in a row so I wouldn’t have to do title keyword searches and deal with every piece of mail I’d ever sent in discussion of the project.
Also, I know a great solution to the problem of Final Draft glitches. It’s called Movie Magic Screenwriter. I have plenty of experience with both, and whenever I’m in Final Draft, I feel like I’m driving a big, unreliable, gas-guzzling car on a bumpy road while my trusty Smooth Ride Hovercraft ™ sits in the garage.
September 11th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
[i]I have a Yahoo e-mail address that is specifically for sending myself drafts and nothing else. Since I use my personal e-mail address for all kinds of communication, I wanted to have one spot where every single version of all my projects could be found in a row so I wouldn’t have to do title keyword searches and deal with every piece of mail I’d ever sent in discussion of the project.[/i]
Great idea.
September 12th, 2009 at 6:13 am
@Andrew–
I’ve had this same problem with FD8 (the title page thing). I contacted their customer support. And while they were nice and friendly, their response was: “Just delete the lines.”
Problem is (for me at least), it just reverts.
Ugh. Technology: best friend or worst enemy?
–The Other Andrew
September 13th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
sorry, feel stupid. What’s a two-up? how do you do it? I use celtx.
September 13th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Paula–
My favorite part of the process is inputting my notes from the hard copy back into the computer. I get to pat myself on the back with a lot of “yep, that’s a good edit” talk. It’s uplifting. And it’s somewhat mindless. Plus it feels so close to the end! (though of course it very rarely is…).
September 13th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Hey John,
I was just wondering if you had seen this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/13/megan-fox-branded-dumb-as_n_285005.html
What’re your thoughts? (not on Megan Fox, but on crew members speaking out about unbearable actors/directors? Any experience with such things? What’s the appropriate action to take?)
September 19th, 2009 at 4:31 am
I
ve met one printer doing front and back and its my favourite.September 21st, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Great tips and practices done after finishing up writing your draft. Id like to share my rules on screenwriting, The 10 Basic Rules.
September 26th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
About the appearance of your pdf doc, I offer a few comments about Adobe pdf and fonts. I’ve used Adobe Acrobat for years on Windows machines. As you may know, it’s the software that Adobe sells to create pdf docs and it works as a “virtual printer”, i.e., you designate it as your printer and print to it from just about any software that has a print function. Along the way (and the hard way) I learned about embedding fonts.
Years ago, I created a document in MS PowerPoint using a variety of great fonts I had installed on my PC and when I previewed the pdf doc I’d created it looked great, so I thought all was fine. However, it only looked fine because I was viewing the pdf doc on my PC and Adobe Reader made use of those locally-installed fonts. Of course, the person to whom I sent the pdf doc did not have many of the fonts I used so the doc looked terrible on his machine. The key when printing using Adobe Acrobat is to make sure its settings will embed the fonts used in your document. That way, what you see is what the receiver gets. (NB: Some fonts cannot be embedded because the copyright owner has, as is his/her right, disabled that ability. Acrobat is supposed to let you know if you try to embed such a font that it’s not possible.)
I recently started using Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 which has a built-in ability to “export” to pdf, i.e., you don’t have to own Adobe Acrobat and use “print”. At least on my PC, “exporting” from MM6 does not embed MM’s own version of Courier. Instead, the standard Windows Courier font is substituted in the actual pdf document. Why? Dunno. I have not taken the time to contact the MM people about this. Unless there is a patent issue, I can only surmise that it’s a bug.
When I use Acrobat to “print” to pdf, Courier MM is embedded – and, the text looks better (slightly darker and sharper) on my screen. (NB: Attempting to “print” to Acrobat will crash MM6 if there is a title page. This was a mystery, but ultimately not a problem for me since MM6’s “Title Page Publisher” function is incredibly bad – meaning, I truly cannot believe that it is as bad as it is. (MS Word for DOS was better.) So, I use MS Word for the title page.)
As you may know, there are low-cost and even free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat, at least for Windows. I do not know if any of them have the “embed fonts” function, but you could check that out.
The bottom line, at least on Windows: If you embed the fonts you use then the pdf doc will look the same on any Windows machine. And, AFAIK, this is true if the pdf doc you created is viewed on a PC or a Mac. (Linux? I assume so.)