A Word On Screenwriting

I just spent the last three hours working on a pivotal scene in my latest screenplay, 'The Humorous Ones' about four small town, amateur comedians. Within the scene in question, I explored the science behind creating comedy and did so in an educational and insightful way, using the history of stand up comedy as a backdrop. It was in this scene that I expressed every feeling I had about writing this project and professed a powerful commentary on the lives of the average person and the daily struggle most people live with. It was a thoughtful and rather strong stretch of dialogue between two characters that worked to propel the story forward.

This scene is almost seven pages long and I love it. However, it's all long winded speeches about life and the world and a talky exploration of the Genesis of comedy.

So I cut five pages out of it.

Now it's a lean, mean almost two page scene that doesn't meander with pretentious babble and instead moves the script forward with a semblance of an actual story.

The lesson here is, even if you love what you've written on a single page, you must take into account the big picture. How does each scene serve your story? If it doesn't pay off for something that happens later, then it's probably best to cut it. While there are exceptions to the rule (screenplays by Tarantino and the Coen Brothers come to mind) that is usually done by accomplished writers. I don't consider myself accomplished yet. So when that time comes, maybe I'll play with a little pretension...

Here is the original scene:

And here it is in its current version: