“You try and write your first really bad draft as quickly as possible, with some care—not just sloppy, throw it on. But take your time and steadily get through a few pages everyday and when you’re done you’ll have your 100-120 pages—whatever it is—and it’s going to probably be pretty bad. All of my first drafts are awful. Then you have something to mold, then you have something to play with. The re-writing to me is the fun part. I hate writing that first draft. You’ll have this idea you think is great and you’ll start writing it and halfway through you start to doubt yourself. The main thing is to push through, maybe give it a few days before you re-read it and then if you want to keep going just get back in and start re-writing scene by scene.”
Oscar-nominated screenwriter Bob Nelson (Nebraska)
The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith
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