Most days, I’m on the phone with screenwriters, either from my classes or writers we’re working with on some kind of deal.  As we talk about their projects, I often think “That’s something I should write about in the newsletter.”

But in all the excitement and all the work, most of those pieces of advice don’t make it to the page.

In the next few issues, I’m going to provide some of the advice I give writers almost every day.  In most cases, I’m giving it because it solves one of their specific problems.  But most of these problems keep showing up again and again.

Pay close attention.  One of these may solve an important problem for you.

ADVICE: Don’t let a “good idea” keep you from coming up with a great idea.

This is important.  So many times, I see scripts where the writer found a “good way” of writing a scene or character and they set it in stone.

They achieved “good,” then resists anything that could make it ”great.”  It isn’t that they fell in love with the idea.  It’s more like they feel like it is done, so they don’t want to revisit it.

So let me give you a clear idea of the process to do:

1. Come up with the idea for a character or scene and write it.
2. After finishing that draft of your script, check to see how good the idea really is for your story.
3. If it is good, but not great, then elevate it.  If there’s a problem, then solve it.
4. Do a rewrite with the improved version.
5. Check again to see how well it serves the story.
6. Continue steps 3 – 6 until everything in your script is at the highest quality level possible.

Your good ideas are an excellent start — on the way to great ideas — and a great career.

ADVICE:  Tis better to be off-the-charts extreme than to be subtle and dull.

When I first started screenwriting, I asked five or six teachers how to write good subtext.  They usually started out by talking about character, then they moved into what I call “subtle writing.”

For some reason, they had “subtle” mixed up with subtext.  Maybe it was because they both begin with “subt…” but more likely, it was because they didn’t know how to write subtext.

Whatever the reason, here’s the problem:  Subtle is just one part of writing.   When people turn it into a style, they seem to be leaving out all the other important things that make a great script.

After working with hundreds of writers on their scripts, I’ve found out something that can really help you…

It is 10 times easier to back down an extreme script than it is to amp up a subtle script.

Did you get that?  When someone writes in an extreme way, it is easy to find ways to make it more subtle.  But when a script is written in a very subtle way, every change feels like it destroys the mood of the script.

In general, audiences love an emotional roller-coaster.  That means you have both extreme highs and extreme lows, and…there are many subtle parts in between.

The solution:  EXPAND YOUR RANGE.

Get really good at subtle writing and really good at extreme writing.  Become a master at both and you’ll be a star in Hollywood.

ADVICE:  Write “shit” in your first draft and be perfect in your final draft — not the other way around.

This is a major flaw that I see all the time.  People will go out of their way to make their first drafts as good as they can be.

What’s wrong with that?

It violates the purpose of a first draft.  A first draft is all about exploring, discovering, and allowing ideas to show up as you write.  That is a very different process than editing your words as you go.  In fact, editing will reduce or completely destroy the creative process of a first draft.

If you are going to write 3 to 10 drafts anyway, there’s no need to make the first one perfect.  That is the job of the final draft.

But here’s the real paradox of this process:

The same people who try to make the first draft perfect then turn in scripts where the final draft has all kinds of problems.

How could that be?  How could they be so focused on being perfect in the first draft and then turn in something with problems in the end?

Here’s how:  In trying to make the words of every draft perfect, they’ve missed the real purpose of each draft.  So chances are their structure, characters, story outline and other important parts of their script has suffered.

I divide the drafts into three simple steps and each of them has an extremely important job that must be accomplished and requires ALL of the writer’s focus to accomplish it at a professional level.

Here’s the simple version of the purposes:

1. First Draft:  To get your story on paper in a non-edited fashion and create/explore/discover all you can about it.
2. Second to Tenth Drafts:  To solve the problems and elevate anything that isn’t up to the quality level you need.
3. Final Draft:  To polish the script to perfection.

Please notice that you don’t start polishing until everything else is up to the quality level you need.  That final process should only be done when everything else in your script works well.

ADVICE:  You are on the Hero’s Journey.  Stay with it until the end.

Pretend you are writing your own story — You going through the journey of becoming a famous screenwriter.

Chances are that you are going to go through all the stages of the Hero’s Journey.   At some point, you got the “Call to Adventure.” You have probably entered into the “Initiation” phase and are facing your own challenges to completing this journey.

You may have already taken the full-out leap into the Abyss which then leads to the ultimate transformation.  And a few of you have already discovered your gift and make the great Return to life that allows you to express that gift to contribute to society through your art.

Screenwriting can change your life in many ways.  Going through this journey will help you understand how life works, how to deal with conflict, how to work with the character traits of your relatives, and how to see the resolution to a problem while in life’s 2nd Act.

So the next time you feel discouraged, just remind yourself that if you continue to deal with the rising complications and fight your way through the final conflict, you’ll return home as the hero you’ve always wanted to be.

Be strong.  Keep learning.  Keep writing.

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Hal Croasmun is a writer/producer in Los Angeles.  http://www.screenwritingu.com/screenwriting-articles