Part two of my notes on notes.

What is your goal?

Your goal in getting feedback on your script can change during the writing process. 

There are different approaches and benefits at different stages.  Having a sense of when to share, and what questions to have in mind when you are sharing can be a useful way of ensuring that the feedback process helps and doesn’t harm your writing.

Feedback and notes are always going to be a useful process when writing if you know what your goal is.

Career goals

Your career goal – why you are writing – will help choose what kind services or approaches to feedback you’ll choose.

If your goal is production:

• Peers 
• Writing group
• Script consultant 

The deadlines of contests with notes can be a motivating factor, but often those timelines (long leads) may not align with getting something made. 

If your goal is eligibility for development programs and pathways (Australia)

• AWG Contests
• top tier international contests – so ‘with feedback’ can be helpful

If your goal is recognition and awareness

• Select competitions can be useful – but unlike a produced short, small comps can detract, and there are risks to the quality of feedback (see below)

Writing Goals

Your writing goal for feedback may vary across projects and at different writing stages. 

Pre-first draft

Informally testing the idea, premise, characters. These are conversations, you telling the story to people before you put it on the page. Don’t spend too much time here. Just write a draft. Sometimes at this stage you might want a brainstorm with some peers. A ‘what about’ session. In this situation, be clear about roles and outputs. You don’t need surprise ‘cowriter’ claims. 

For features

Outline or one-page. You’ve captured the key beats of the story. For many writers this is too soon to share. However, if you’ve identified significant story challenges or are stuck, your goal at this stage might be to ask for specific

First full draft

First, congratulations, you have a draft. The goal here might vary. It’s usually too soon to share widely, but where you can start with targetted feedback. If you have specific questions about aspects of the script that challenged you, if your character’s needs and wants are coming through on the page, if there are holes or gaps. 

As a writer, you are at your most vulnerable at this first read, so choosing who to get notes from is an important step in meeting your writer goals. This is where your ‘first reader’ comes in handy, someone who’s feedback you value and trust. (See below for a note on first readers).

Revised draft

Your goal at the second, fourth, tenth draft is to make sure it’s all come together, that the mess created by rewriting the first draft hasn’t broken what it is. 

Typically your goal here is fresh eyes. You want different opinions. You still have room to make changes, but you are confident the scaffolding is there. 

You may have a very general goal – ‘notes’ or you may have very specific goals – ‘focus on character A’s action in act 2’. 

At this stage you will have the widest choice of where to get notes that will make a difference and help you achieve your writing goal. 

For sending out

This could be to a contest, to a funding program. 

The goal here is to be as complete a telling of the story in your voice as possible. Tone, rhythm, character, plot, effective big print, no holes. Is everything on the page that needs to be and everything that doesn’t need to be is gone. 

Production Pass

Is your script ready for the producer/director to work with (even if that director is you)? Your goal here is ensuring consistency and that it’s ready for sharing with the other cast and crew. 

Did you miss part one of this series of notes on notes?

Next time, we look at where to get script notes.