Tweetstorm: Zack Stentz on Rewriting Strategies

Zack Stentz has carved out a 15 year career both as a screenwriter and TV writer-producer. His writing credits include the movies Agent Cody Banks, Thor, and X-Men: First Class , (co-written with Ashley Edward Miller) and TV series “Andromeda,” “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” and “Fringe”.

In March 2016, Zack posted a tweetstorm with an interesting take on rewriting strategies. Reprinted here by permission:

Second, I just did on my spec what I’ll call in honor of my friend @GreggHurwitz who coined the term “the Spielbergian pass.” What’s that?

This can be as simple as obvious as rather than call out a huge VFX shot, call out a character SEEING and REACTING to the big VFX shot.

It also means making sure your main characters are emotionally involved in all the action. If it’s not on the spine of the story, IT DIES.

Without giving away spoilers, I’ll use my current giant sic fi spec as an example. The first draft was mainly to world build & get the plot.

But thanks to some ruthless readers, I saw how impersonal my action and story beats were. Talking heads. 3rd person omniscient POV…

So my Spielbergian pass was turning the exposition into action/argument, personalizing the POV throughout, following the same characters…

Oh, a last tip for new writers looking to network: if you live in L.A., go to @WGAWest & Writers Guild Foundation events. Great resources!

That doesn’t mean pester the writers who are speaking their to read your scripts, but meet other new writers in the same boat as you!

I love the Spielbergian pass! Make sure the story, especially the big “beats” as Zack puts it, taps into the characters’ inner world of emotions. Lacking that emotion, you run the risk of spectacle without meaning.

You may follow Zack on Twitter: @MuseZack.

For all of the Screenwriter Tweetstorms, go here.