Small Change?

Conceptually, it seemed like a small change. Just move several scenes around in a screenplay to improve the overall structure.

It wasn’t a small change. When I moved the scenes, parts of the story began to unravel. I started a ripple effect. Ideas that made sense with the original ordering suddenly became clouded. Characters no longer had a reason to do what they had done previously.

As the number of changes needed started to grow, I asked myself if I really had a good reason for wanting to move the scenes. It would cause me to re-write almost half the script! I would lose some decent material and have to develop more new material than expected.

Oh, how foolish!

I thought I was at the stage of mostly polishing the screenplay.

But no!

I was at the stage of needing to re-write a lot of it.

And I’m okay with that.

When I worked on the LEGO Universe project, I was initially surprised that a huge amount of our work got thrown out. As we improved the game, we discovered what wasn’t working and what could be improved.

The same applies to screenwriting. We don’t know what we don’t know until we’re in the middle of it.

Creative work often involves discovery. It’s only by getting started that we learn what can be made better. And I find this creative exploration exhilarating!

So I have a lot more work to do than expected. What seemed to be a small change has become a big change. So what? I’ve learned something.

Hopefully, I’ll keep learning how to make the story better!