Writing is rewriting — but how do you make your writing better when the story is done? Here’s how to wordsmith your story.

Introduction

In this article, we’ll cover the best ways to polish your screenplay until it’s shiny. When you hear the term “polish,” you might think of “rewriting.” You’d be right — the two go hand-in-hand.

The rewriting process for a screenplay can be broken down into two different phases. The first phase is about the macro view of your screenplay, making sure that the structure and character arcs are cohesive. This is what people normally refer to when they mention “rewriting.”

Another area that cannot be overlooked is the polish of a screenplay. Technically, polishing is a type of rewriting; many times, a script polish is used to double-check formatting and tighten dialogue. In addition, there are additional grammatical and wordsmithing elements that are often overlooked in a polish that can help your screen place stand out.

That’s what I’m going to teach here. Let’s jump in!

Two Types of Typos

While avoiding typos should go without saying, I want to point out two specific cases of typos. First, I’m referring to words that are technically spelled correctly but are the wrong word for the situation. Let’s call these “Missingnos.” It’s going to happen quite easily while you’re writing quickly or dictating to a computer.

Plus, it’s easy to overlook these tricky words when you review your screenplay because the word is spelled correctly. The dubious phrase or sentence in question might even make sense at first glance because your brain (to reduce cognitive load) will easily skip over the mistake because it knows what the sentence should be saying. Here’s the kind of thing I’m talking about:

Rub & Tub
Napping & Mapping
Thrust & Trust
Graph & Graft

Other times, it is a simple mistake of the commonly confused words (CCW). These can be homophones, meaning words that sound the same but are spelled differently. These can also be words that sound eerily similar but have different meanings. If you’re not used to examining these distinctions under your grammatical microscope, you can mindlessly use the wrong word.

Homophone: Peak vs. Pique
Homophone: Raise vs. Raze
Homophone: Shutter vs. Shudder

CCW: Conscience vs. Conscious
CCW: Eliminate vs. Illuminate
CCW: Disinterested vs. Uninterested

Reading sentence backward forces you to see every word individually, and this can enable you to catch those pesky words that are spelled correctly but are still incorrect.

Widows and Orphans

“Kill your darlings” may be an oft-parroted writing tip, but have you heard of killing widows and orphans? I know that sounds odd; what do I mean by that? A widow is a single word or a very small phrase that is left hanging at the end of a block of action — the screenplay equivalent of a paragraph. Here’s an example; see the word “rage” all by itself? Widow.

Next is the orphan, which is like a widow except it occurs at the top of the page. It’s a seemingly random word that carries over from an incomplete sentence on the previous page. A professional screenwriting software like Final Draft will automatically help you avoid orphans— but not widows. You’ll have to hunt them down all by your lonesome.

Both widows and orphans are considered poor formatting and can also make your script appear less professional. By removing widows and orphans, you can streamline your script and potentially reduce your page count. This is not just because it’s a writing and typography best practice. More importantly, it because the visual layout of your script affects the reading experience. Visuals storytelling is the soul of screenwriting, so use any tool you have to enrich the images in your story.

Passive Voice

Passive voice means that the object of the sentence does the verb — which is an oxymoron. Passivity focuses the sentence on the object (what’s being acted upon) rather than the subject (who is doing the action) of the sentence. This is the opposite of what you should use, which is active voice. Passive voice should be avoided at all costs because it reduces the importance of the person performing the action — or removes her altogether. Just like no one wants to watch a movie with a passive character, no one wants to read a script written in the passive voice.

Let’s look at examples of passive and active voice:

See the difference? It might seem like the difference is merely pedantic, but it elevates your writing to a professional level. The only time you should use passive voice is if the action is being performed by an unknown agent.

Progressive Tense

Some in the screenwriting community will tell you that it’s better not to have adverbs and gerunds in your action. This is not entirely true. First, you should not avoid adverbs but instead, use them strategically to portray your characters and tone. However, there is one type of gerund you should avoid. These gerunds stem from the real enemy: progressive tense!

This is related to the previous point about passive voice because both grammar faux pas have the wrong verb forms in their sentence structure. Plus, one can have a sentence that is using both passive voice and progressive tense. Yikes!

So, let’s examine the present progressive versus the simple present tenses:

Progressive tense refers to an action happening over a period of time, hence the “progression.” While “is walking” communicates the same information as the alternative, it’s weaker because it’s less immediate. Your screenplay should depict actions happening in simple present tense, not present progressive.

Now you can see that the issue is not so much about the gerund (“walking”) but the tense of the action. Here is an example of a gerund that is allowed:

Why is it allowed? Because it’s not part of the independent (main) clause of the sentence. The part with the gerund (“looking”) augments his primary action, which is “lurches.” Matthis is looking while he steps.

As you can see, the “no gerund rule” is not so much about gerunds but making the sentences active. So, the rule should be, “no progressive tense.” You can use another tense (like “the blood had begun to dry”) if the action already occurred or began while a character wasn’t present or looking; just make sure you don’t do it often.

I learned about all this because I taught it day after day for years to high schoolers to help them ace the SAT — and that part-time job after grad school made me a better wordsmith.

Externalized Emotions

Finally, emotions must be externalized, meaning what’s written should be seen or performable on screen. You should avoid internal, non-visual phrases like these:

Those work in a novel where the reader is in the character’s head, but in a visual medium like film, this is sloppy writing. I’m not saying you have to be dry and emotionless in how you portray moments — by all means, use emotional language to make your audience feel something! However, your prose needs to be founded in what’s visual and actable.

Here’s a better way to re-word those phrases:

Wordsmithing Overview

Now, I’m going to show you an entire page full of these blunders you should avoid. See if you can find them all before you look at the image below it with all of the mistake corrected in bold!

Rusty, Unpolished Script Page:

There are nine mistakes. How many did you find?

Shiny, Polished Script Page:

Makes a big difference, huh? You can do it, too! If this makes you hungry to learn more, go watch my training called How to Write Invisible Camera Angles.

Summary

Now you’ve got more wordsmithing and grammar tools in your screenwriting toolkit to polish your script like a pro! Here they are:

Hunt down typos which are wrong even when spelled right.
Kill your widows and orphans.
Passive voice must not be used by you! (See what I did there?)
Use active voice, not passive voice.
Externalize characters’ emotions on the page.

Which of these polishing tips surprised you? Let me know in the comments below.

Did this help you? Then you’d probably like my visual storytelling class, How to Write Invisible Camera Angles!

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How to Polish Your Screenplay like a Pro