Can you share a time when a script rewrite dramatically changed the direction of a project for the better?

I once worked on a project where the first draft of the script was flat and didn’t connect with the audience. The client wanted to promote their product, but the script felt more like a list of features than a story. I realized it needed a complete rewrite to make it more engaging.

While AI tools can be helpful for gathering information, they often miss the personal touch and emotional depth needed for a great script. It takes more time to craft a story that resonates with the audience, and AI can’t capture those details.

So, I spent time talking to the client to understand the story behind the product—why it was made and how it could help people. I then used this information to create a script that told a more emotional and personal story.

The new script completely changed the project. Instead of just focusing on selling, it told a story that made the product feel special and connected with the audience. The result was a more engaging video that got better reactions from viewers.

Lately, I've been receiving 'first drafts' from clients that are written from AI. These are always terrible and require a complete rewrite. AI is great for specific tasks and gathers background information quickly. But, it can't tell a story well. Video scripts are the most successful when they are based around a story with very specific details. Part of my job as a writer is to investigate and ask the questions that resonate with my client's target audience. Then, take them on an emotional journey that is unique to my client's story or message they want to convey. The end result is a custom, personalized script that sells.

I had a client who came to me with a Hollywood script that was clearly 'written by consensus'. It was a muddled pile of tropes that no audience would believe or care about.

When I was brought on as the script doctor, I got specific and factual. I told the producer that if they wanted to set this movie apart from everything else on the subject, they needed to make it feel gut-wrenchingly real. And he gave me the golden ticket to change whatever I had to change in order to make that happen.

This turned the product from a bad Thelma and Louise rip off to a heartbreaking action-drama about the impact of drugs on urban and suburban moms, as well as the real processes and motivations that drive the drug trade. Everyone involved was happy to be working with something fresh, well researched, and with tons more heart.

Scripts sometimes seem to have a life of their own. I often liken a problem script to a shopping cart with a faulty wheel; no matter how hard you try to push it in a certain direction, it will insist upon veering off to the side. Some years back I was developing a show for the BBC, and the pilot script wasn't working. We rewrote it and rewrote it, but it just wasn't landing right. Eventually, I offered to start again from scratch - abandoning all the work we'd done - and rebuild it from the ground up. It was a breeze from that point, and the series lasted ten years. 

One of my clients had a full-length movie script that was almost finished... except for the fact that he seemingly had no conflict in the story. The story focused heavily on the internal aspects of the main character, and as such used too much exposition and VO monologues to convey the issues the character was having, which made the whole story feel heavy and lacking conflict. 

By rewriting the story to focus more on outward actions that the character had to do and had done upon him, we shifted the focus to how mental illness and internal conflicts could reflect on someone's life and made it infinitely more cinematic and relatable. Since script is its own medium and not a book, we need to rely on actions, visual and auditory, to convey ideas and concepts, instead of having the main character explain everything through VOs.