Tweetstorm: Carter Blanchard on Rewriting

“Writing is not just rewriting, but re-READING.”

Twitter can be a gold mine for writers. Case in point, when pro writers generate a tweetstorm about the craft. For example, the other day, 2012 Black List screenwriter Carter Blanchard (@CartBlanch) rained down some wisdom on the tricky process of rewriting. Reproduced here by permission:

Strong advice. Any time you make a change in a script — particularly if it involves a character — you have to re-read both the entire script, but also that specific character to see if everything tracks. Because chances are if you change a character’s motivation, personality, or backstory here in this one scene, it’s going to have a ripple effect on those scenes over there.

In my experience, this is one of those areas which non-writers who work in development have the most difficult time grasping.

“It’s a minor character, no one will miss her… what’s the difference if you change it so that his wife died instead of left him… just move this scene from page 22 to after that scene on page 39.”

Uh, no. Each of those changes have an impact on the story. They may be subtle, they may be substantive, but in each case, it’s the writer’s job not only to try to effect the change — if it helps the story — but also to make sure the changes track throughout the rest of the narrative.

Heed Carter’s advice: Re-writing is also re-READING. Pay attention to the micro AND the macro, the change in that one scene… and its influence on the overall story.

Twitter: @cartblanch.

For more screenwriter tweetstorms, go here.

To read my 2013 interview with Carter, go here.