Reworking Scenes

So one of the issues I’ve been having lately is rewriting scenes to feature entirely different characters. Not just adding a new one in, but, more less, substituting characters because previous scene rewrites have changed the narrative.

In this instance I’ve had to accept that Reagan holds more importance to the plot than other supporting characters and that means I can’t skip over important scenes with him, then expound on scenes with others. It sounds pretty obvious in retrospect but like I said the other day, I’m still getting to know these characters. This is what editing and rewriting are for.

It it is pretty fun though, because these scenes can change dramatically by changing who’s in them. Reagan acts so completely different from Giz, that swapping them out means a lot of rewriting. It’s like having your own personal “what-if” scenario.

Okay, today’s homework. Find a favorite scene from your favorite book or movie and swap out at least one character with one of the others from that work. What if Inigo Montoya was actually the man in black and Westley had fallen in with Vizzini’s crew? Give it a shot!

​DFTBA