picking up on pace
published: 2013-10-01The challenge in writing screenplay is this: once you change something in a scene, you’ll find yourself changing things in many, many other scenes down the line too. In retrospect this actually means you did something right, because the one scene (any scene) is supposed to influence the next. That’s the whole purpose of screenwriting. So you better be damn sure of what you’re doing when you start changing things.
I like to compare screenwriting to life’s sequence of events. Consider moving backwards into your life and changing a specific event. See what happens?
If I start hesitating because I’m not always one hundred percent sure the change I’m making is for the better, I remind myself: but are we ever sure in life? And doesn’t it all, in retrospect, make perfect sense? Remember, that final act really picks up on pace. It’s over before you know it.