I don’t know why, but one of the hardest things to impress upon new screenwriters is the need to actually think out your script before sitting down and writing it. Let me rephrase that, because maybe this is the source of the problem: before sitting down and writing scenes with action, description and dialogue in script format. Because that is the last phase of the actual writing process, at least as far as the first draft is concerned. Most of writing the script actually happens before you ever type “FADE IN” or “INT. MY FIRST LOCATION - DAY.”  Because once you’re ready to do that, you actually need to be ready to do that. This means that you know your plot, scene by scene; you know that your characters appear where they need to; you know that your subplots haven’t taken over a third of your second act where you’ve sort of forgotten about your main plot, and you haven’t locked yourself into lovely little bits of dialogue or perfect scene transitions that you just can’t bear to lose, even though they aren’t working or necessary. Because it’s in the actual scripting where those darlings you may need to kill come up, and it hurts to do away with them. So try to avoid them in the first place.

Don’t assume that using a beat-sheet will do the trick, where you sequentially write down your scenes on a sheet of paper.  You’ll be tempted to add more detail than you need now, and you still will not be able to visualize the map of the story in the same way. Cards are your friend: here you can jot down the scenes you already have in mind, and move them around on your corkboard to see where they may fit in the overall story. That board is where you’ll see the big holes in plot and character, the gaps that need to be filled, and where you can literally visualize the whole sweep of your story, without being bound to any details that may or may not serve it. You can easily move scenes or whole sequences around without worrying about going through every line of dialogue to make sure I don’t have things out of order. I even color-code the names of my main characters where they appear, so I can see if I’ve clustered them too much or forgotten about them for too long. Some writers separate their acts in three sections, so they can make sure their first act doesn’t take up half the script, meaning they need to move some of the events and action to later sections. Then, once your cards are all set, beginning to end, you can write out your beat-sheet. Then and only then, should you start scripting–and you won’t be beating your head against a wall, wondering what comes next, because you already know.

Oh, and one other thing: when you get to your rewrites (and there will be more than one), you should go back and do a whole new set of cards. That’s where you’ll find what went wrong, what needs to be fleshed out, and where you left unresolved plot issues. Don’t get lazy, do it. Because that is where the real writing happens.