Part of rewriting is being able to figure out what’s wrong so it can be fixed.   Are the characters believable?  Is the world you created believable?  Does the story flow smoothly from one scene to the next?

One minute, as writers, we are looking at the details of a small part of the screenplay, perhaps a scene or a beat.   The next minute, we’re trying to see it as this big thing, perhaps writing a logline, one or two sentences that describe the entire story.  Our job, as screenwriters, is not easy.

Everytime I reread a screenplay, I look for different things.  But every time I read it, I check for two things on every scene. 

First, does the scene move the story forward. 

Second, does the scene reveal information about the main character.

If the scene doesn’t do one of these two things, then I delete it.