The Joy of the "What If?" (Script Slip, Part II)

So even as I keep pounding out notes on other people's scripts, I'm getting more notes back on mine, which again is a process I've only recently gone back to.

It was an uncertain one, too. I slipped my script to a lot of new online friends whose response I wasn't too sure of.

So far I'm thrilled, and excited about my rewrite. Because the notes I'm getting are great, and some are even truly extensive.

The problem, of course, is that aside from a few key things (the last scene needs work, the villain needs better establishing), a lot of the notes are really very different. I've had readers extensively pick at certain scenes or ideas that all the other readers haven't even mentioned.

Many people don't realize what a tapestry a screenplay really is. Screenplays have a myriad of choices along the way, and though there may be one best way to tell any story, there sure as hell are a half-dozen pretty good ways, and several-hundred slightly-better-than-mediocre ways, and some times it's hard to tell which is which.

So I'm getting notes now that make me reassess a lot. That make me chew over plot points, and character backstory, and even key relationships in the script. Is it necessary that these two characters be related? Does it make sense that this character would have that job? Would this minor character really behave in that fashion to someone that they don't know?

What I'm realizing, is that there really isn't any particular right and wrong to these questions in and of themselves. It's how they feed into what the story is that you are trying to tell.

What it's all getting me to get back in touch with is the joy of the "What If". These notes are pushing my to grab corners of my script and shake it, to see what will fall out. Too often, I tend to accept sequences that work, and not ask myself if they could work better.

So the What If. What if this reader is right, and this might be a more interesting option? Where could that lead? Is that better? What about what that reader said; wouldn't that go with this other suggestion, and make that whole segment of the script tighter and more interesting?

I think this is the key to the whole feedback debate. It's not about blindly taking the suggestions of someone who may or may not know what is best for your script, but letting these suggestions (which generally are inspired by some flaw in your script, real or perceived) lead you to where the What If? is. Where the choice in your script is, that really turns out not to be as tightly-stitched as you thought it was.

(It's also another reason why "I liked it" really isn't helpful as a note. When you are giving someone notes, try to find ways to jumpstart the What If? in their own head).

I've already completely rebuilt a bit chunk of my first act. It's not due to any particular note, but in filtering a lot of responses through my own take on my script. And it's better.

So thanks to those who took the time, and got me to start asking the tough questions about my script.

And I'd like to hope that, while I'm giving notes, that even if I roar off down a tapestry thread that the writer ultimately doesn't have any interest in going in, that at least I'll get them to grapple with a whole bunch of What Ifs.

Because at the end, that's how the great scripts are built.