Trim to avoid TL;DR
Writing a screenplay is like building a house - the first draft is just the foundation. It's in the editing that the real work begins. Like magic. It can take your jumbled mess and turns it into a polished diamond. Well, maybe not a diamond, but at least a decent-looking rock.
How do you clean up that first draft? First, cut the handles. They’re like those annoying tags on the back of a shirt - unnecessary and always in the way.
Names are a commonly overused handle, so don't begin half your lines with a direct address from one character to another. And for the love of all things, get rid of those filler words like "so," "um," and "like." Use the "Find" function on your word processor to eliminate them.
Next, cut those pesky gerunds from your action lines. Gerunds are like those annoying relatives that never leave your house. They denote ongoing processes and are not valuable for screenwriting because we want you to tell us the active situation, not the process. Instead of saying, "Sarah Connor is shooting," say, "Sarah Connor shoots." Let your reader’s live in the moment.
Double-check if you need every word. It's like when you're packing for a trip, you want to bring everything, but you can't. Ask yourself if something is essential. Do this not just line by line but word by word. If a word can be deleted without altering the meaning of a sentence, delete that word.
Focus on the big picture. When it comes to action lines, find the focus of the image, not the specifics. Readers are more interested in a compelling visual moment than the specifics of how a character loads a gun or gets into a car. You can add back that business with your Director in the production draft.
Unless the action line is the meat of the moment, why is it there? If you need to write several sentences to communicate an idea, take a step back and consider what emotion or revealing activity you're explaining. Is there a more concise image that does the same thing? Remember, you’re writing for a visual medium.
Consider shorter synonyms. We've all felt the pain of a line running over onto another page. If you can save an entire line of a page by using a shorter synonym, do it. It's like Marie Kondo says, "If it doesn't spark joy, get rid of it." Personally, I hate the way those lone words look on the page. I obsess over deleting them.
Combine sentences to speed up the read. If two sentences are communicating the same idea, eliminate one. Like killing two birds with one stone but less violent.
Remove unhelpful ornaments. Adjectives are the glitter of screenwriting - fun but overused. If an adjective isn't essential, delete it. Instead of adverbs, use a more specific verb to convey meaning without adding an extra word to describe it.
Finally, avoid via negativa. Say what something is instead of saying what it isn’t Don't describe what someone doesn't do. Instead, write their action as clearly as possible. It's like explaining why pineapple doesn't belong on pizza - it's better to just say you don't like it.
These tips should help you clean up that messy first draft. In this TL;DR world, the quicker your script reads, the more likely that people will read it.
