SE2 D239: Rewriting at Rewrites

I’m a member of several different writing groups. At times, I have multiple scripts going and will take a different screenplay to each group as I work through the story. But then there are times I take one script to all the groups.

Currently, I am enrolled in REJ’s Inside the Room Television Workshop where the participants are developing a TV series. As we near the final sessions, we will all be presenting our teasers for our respective series. I have worked through the teaser and the first two acts of my series. Last week I presented my teaser to many compliments and a scarcity of notes. Prior to presenting the teaser, I took those pages to my Thursday night group Rewrites.

The reading went very well, but there were a couple of minor notes. I did a quick rewrite on Friday and took the new version into Inside the Room where, as I mentioned above, it had an even better reception. This is one of the advantages of working with multiple groups; you can use one to prepare for the other. Plus, the different dynamics of various workshops can put a different spin on your work, revealing flaws that might otherwise go unnoticed.

This Saturday is the final presentation of teasers at Inside the Room. However, we got through so many last week that there may be time left over this week. Ben, one of the moderators of Inside the Room, suggested I be ready to present my first act this week. Accordingly, I took those pages to Rewrites tonight for a sort of advance preview. It went swimmingly well. In fact, I don’t think it could have gone better, but that’s not say I didn’t have questions.

Though the piece read well and at a quick pace, I felt there was something missing. The action was all there, but there seemed to be a lack of character development. And the one scene that had more development also felt too long by comparison with the other scenes. My notes last week had less to do with the teaser but rather what would happen subsequent to the teaser in the first act. Taking those comments and my own feelings from tonight’s reading, I will do a rewrite tomorrow and try to address those issues and see if I can get a better structure working.

If I can pull this off, I might actually make a pretty big impact with the opening of my series. Cross your fingers.