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EDITING YOUR SCREENPLAY:

From Draft One to Draft Done!

EDITING YOUR SCREENPLAY: From Draft One to Draft DONE is the follow-up textbook from professional Hollywood WGA screenwriter Michael Tabb, whose projects have been written for and released by Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures, and companies with overall deals at Warner Bros., among others.

His first book, PREWRITING YOUR SCREENPLAY, earned widespread praise from working screenwriters, showrunners, and top film-school educators for its clear, step-by-step approach to building a bulletproof screenplay foundation—premise, genre, character, and plot—before the first draft ever begins.

Now, with EDITING YOUR SCREENPLAY, Michael tackles the other end of the process: what happens after the script is written. Drawing directly from real-world studio and development experience, this textbook breaks down the advanced editing tools used by professionals to transform a solid draft into a refined, production-ready screenplay.

Turn your rough script into a razor-sharp, fully fleshed out screenplay. Whether you're polishing your first draft line-by-line or performing a major overhaul rewrite of a script that just isn't working, this book breaks down the craft of screenplay editing into clear, practical steps, perfecting one aspect of your script at a time.

Learn how to tighten dialogue, sharpen character arcs, fix pacing problems, heighten genre, select meaningful locations, fine-tune your research, and cut the scenes that slow your story down—without losing the heart of your script. And there is so much more.

Packed with professional techniques, and actionable checklists, this guide shows you how great screenplays are truly made: in the rewrite. If you want your script to read faster, hit harder, and keep readers turning pages, this is the editing playbook for which you’ve been looking.