Benefits of Reviewing and Editing Your Screenplay or Comedic Script

Every writer must review and edit their work and it is no different for a comedian who writes his own material. Reviewing your work will take out flaws, tighten it up and prevent your audience falling asleep from boredom. Editing will catch any mistakes before you go to air, as it were.

There should be two parts to your reviewing/editing process. Firstly, edit the written words, making sure the grammar is correct and the sequences logical. If your jokes are one-liners, ask yourself if they are too long or not clear enough. Will everyone know what you are talking about? What about the punch line? Can it be shorter? Is the major word right at the end?

If they are longer, story-type jokes, look at the introduction, Levitra the plot and the body, then at the ending. Does it all go in logical sequence? Can you tighten it up anywhere? Read it out loud to get the flow right. When you are satisfied that everything is as good as you can get it, act it out as if you were on stage. Sometimes when you need to match words to movements, either one could be too long for too short for the other.

Sometimes when you write your funny stuff, the best way is to just write it as it comes and pay no attention to quality. Forget spelling, grammar and everything else but just getting that stuff onto the page. Let it sit for a week without looking at it, then go back and reread it; if it still makes you laugh (or grin) then start editing it for the quality. Tighten it up, rearrange the sequence if you need to and generally make it more readable. Work on the punch lines to see if you can shorten them or make them stronger.

There are many things you can do to improve your writing. Take out adjectives and adverbs. Replace works ending ‘ly’ with something stronger. Go through it all with a fine-tooth comb until it shines.

For reviewing, you could get others to listen or read it and see if they think it’s funny. If they don’t, ask them why not and get specific reasons. It could be a wrong use of language; wording, concept or length – or maybe they just never see the funny side of life. Ask someone else. If they say the same thing, throw it out and start again. Some things are just not funny.

Author Bio: Learn all about screenwriting today. Visit Brian’s website, http://www.ScreenwritingBasics.com and learn about writing comedy and writing screenplays

Category: Writing
Keywords: screenwriting, screenplay, comedy writing, film writing, humor writing, freelance writing

Leave a Reply