WRITING IS REWRITING
Author: Julia Horcajo Hernández
Recently I was reading a Michaela Cole (Chewing Gum, I May Destroy you…) interview where she mentioned she had done 120 drafts for I May Destroy you.
At first, I thought that sounds excessive… but then I thought, well, if that’s what it takes for her to do that magnificent piece of art, then well done her!
Writing is challenging, everyone that has ever faced a blank page can tell you so. The doubts, the impostor syndrome, the procrastination… they are all very common, yep, you are not alone. But in my experience, no first draft is ever good, and it has nothing to do with talent, but with the craft. Script writing is a form of storytelling, Dah! And stories can be told in a million ways, you might have the story in your head, you just don’t know how to tell it yet, and that will only come from you sitting down and making decisions.
Think of it as legos, you have the pieces, and you can build a million different things with them.
JUST REMEMBER
Changing your mind is allowed
Listen to your characters
Experiment with different story lines
Don’t be afraid to break and rebuild
You don’t need to go crazy with the number of drafts…
ARRIVAL (Eric Heisserer)
Over 100 drafts
Uncut Gems (Safdie Brothers)
160 drafts
But remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your script, so embrace it and have fun!
Julia Horcajo Hernández joined Unstoppable Entertainment (now Unstoppable Film and Television) in 2016. Before that she was based in Spain, where she worked in different fields, such as advertising for Zapping M&C Saatchi Madrid; Television, in the production department for different non scripted programmes, under the Mediapro Group; and music, where she joined the A&R department at Universal Music Spain. Since joining the Unstoppable team, Julia has worked on different projects such as TIFF’s selected ‘Brotherhood’ and LFF’s ‘The Fight’ among others.