I'm on my final pass of my debut screenplay, Confidence (Psychological Thriller), focusing solely on the beats and pacing this time around.
I'm curious about other writers' processes: When you are generating the first draft or any draft, do you focus on writing the beats/pacing in real-time to keep the flow alive, or do you find it more effective to write messy and then rigorously engineer the pacing (adding, removing, combining beats) during a dedicated pass?
Any specific structural techniques you swear by for tightening the emotional rhythm in a thriller?
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Thanks for the support and the advice!
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Congratulations on getting to the final pass, Ryan Wilford! I rewrite as I go, so I'm creating and fixing things in the first draft.
I don't have any structural techniques for tightening the emotional rhythm in a Thriller, but Stage 32 has a webinar for writing the perfect plot twist if your script needs one. www.stage32.com/education/products/how-to-write-the-perfect-plot-twist-t...
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This is a fantastic question that gets to the heart of the process. For me, it's a hybrid approach, but I strongly lean toward "write messy, engineer later."
In the first draft, my only job is to get the story and the raw emotion onto the page. If I stop to perfectly engineer every beat in real-time, I risk killing the creative momentum.
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I'm new to screenwriting but I use the "Save the Cat" storyboard program that helps me input the beats into a storyboard and arrange them and get them squared away before I start writing. Helps me visually to see the beats and pacing. Congrats on getting to that final pass.
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Maurice Vaughan Thanks for the congrats on the final pass, Maurice!
That's interesting that you rewrite as you go—it definitely sounds like a great way to keep the material tight from the start. I appreciate the link to the plot twist webinar as well!
Cheers!
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Sam Rivera I love this approach, it's something I'm trying to mirror within my process! That idea of not killing the creative momentum in the first draft is absolutely key.
I'm considering formalizing my process into structured passes: (not concrete, but something like):
Pass 1: Get the story out there—raw, unfiltered, and unedited.
Pass 2: Address grammar, continuity, and dialogue clean-up.
Pass 3: The dedicated pass for beats and pacing.
It definitely sounds like a lot, but I believe that reviewing with a single, clear intent on each pass will be much more effective than trying to do everything at once.
Thank you so much for sharing your insight and a bit of your personal process—I really appreciate that!
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You're welcome, Ryan Wilford. Rewriting as I go helps me come up with ideas. Scene ideas, dialogue, twists, tech for my characters, etc.
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John Fife Thanks for the congrats on the final pass, John!
That's really interesting—I've never heard of the "Save the Cat" storyboard program for inputting and arranging beats. It sounds like a powerful way to visually structure the pacing before you commit to the script.
It’s fascinating how, as writers, our processes are so different, and how we find such unique tools that work for our personal way of seeing a story. Thanks so much for sharing your method and taking the time! Good luck on your journey!
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You're welcome Ryan. Great program and has helped me a lot with my writing. There is a great book out there called "Save the Cat, The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need" By Blake Snyder. Short book but really lays out a template how a screenplay should be structured and organized so it flows the Hollywood way,
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I get all my beats in there first. It's known as pre-writing and usually comes in the form of what's known as a scriptment.
Pace is a very tonal thing and subject to voice. There's not really a right or wrong.
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I love this, thanks for sharing your process! I'm still learning how to pace my beats. CJ Walley