Last night, I painstakingly rewrote 16 pages; broke out the thesaurus, cut scenes, changed two spaces after periods to one (because that’s evidently the new standard, *ugh), rewrote dialogue and description, and today I’m brain dead.
I was immediately drawn to this image; the contrast of color, the vibrancy, the imagination runs wild…
Happy Writing! And I look forward to your creations!
A Writer's Discrepant Memoirs and Other Tales 
TIMEOUT! I’m here to save you time and aggravation.
RE: “changed two spaces after periods to one (because that’s evidently the new standard, *ugh),”
It is NOT the new standard. You do not need to waste your time doing that. It’s true that some professional screenwriters have switched from two spaces to one. It’s true that some always used one. But, it’s also true that many use two. Want proof? Check out the screenplays for 12 Years a Slave. 42. A Serious Man. American Hustle. In less than a minute, I quickly glanced these (starting with the top of the alphabet) all contained two spaces (though one contained some instances of one space). That’s from a simple one minute glance. Just because John August and/or Craig Mazin recently switched to one space (or whomever told you it’s the standard) does not make it the standard, forcing you to aggravate over changing such minute details in your screenplay.
I say this because I don’t want you to waste time on meaningless pursuits that will not make you a better screenwriter. Focus on what matters. And stop listening to whomever convinced you that you need to change from 2 spaces to 1.
Okay, TIME IN. 🙂
LikeLike
P.S. Not suggesting John August or Craig Mazin suggested it’s the new standard, just their new standard. I actually think they suggested you can approach it however you want, which is true.
LikeLike
I literally just had to hold in a bark of laughter because that is exactly where I got the info from. I guess in regular prose, the one space rule has now become the norm so I was wondering about screenplays. Googled it and August & Mazin’s podcast discussing this was one of the first things on the list. I think there was some comment that two spaces was basically “old school”. Hitting the space bar twice is equivalent to muscle memory to me at this point. It was painful & exhausting to try to do only one space while rewriting. Thank you so much for letting me write the way I like! Thank you. Thank you. 🙂
LikeLike
Also a P.S. and I don’t want to admit this, but the one space thing did clean up some lines, so that sometimes there wasn’t a single word dangling on a new line…damn.
LikeLike
That’s awesome! Keep up the good work.
LikeLike
Thank you! I’m trying to complete it by the end of the month. I’d like to move on to something new. Yes, this is the same rewrite I’m always talking about, but have been putting off. 🙂
LikeLike
I’m still writing the same book that I’ve been putting off. LOL…I’m ONLY on chapter 7. Girl, we will not go there. Haha! Too funny.
LikeLike
Hehe! Some pieces are just harder than others. Or maybe it’s because we love them too much to not let them be perfect. Yea, let’s go with that theory. 🙂
LikeLike
Right! I wrote a 1000 words today. I’m going to try and make that my daily goal. Well see.
LikeLike
That’s a good goal. Some of my writer friends have the same. For screenwriting, I find it hard to set a goal like 5 pgs/day because my mind doesn’t free write like that. I’ve found it easier to write prose with that sort of goal. I don’t know why. Good luck!
LikeLike
Yes, for my screenplays 2 -3 pages is good for me, lol.
LikeLike