I had the opportunity to be in a writer’s room, and found myself often sliding into the position of ‘page economist’- which means I would always come in after all was said and done and try to get us back as many pages as possible by making cuts here and there. Here’s what I learned:
1. Do it by scenes! Divide and conquer. Start with the longest scenes and work your way down. It’s much more manageable to get a 4 page scene down to 3 pages than to get a 65 page script down to 64 pages. Look for scenes that end in the middle of a page.
2. Orphan lines. You probably have a lot of these. They are either action or dialogue sentences that have a single word on the next line. Cut them! All these little words end up turning into whole pages you’ve just saved.
3. Say more, talk less. See if you can rewrite your dialogue to say the same thing but with less words. Not only will this help you when it comes to page economy, but sometimes you can find a better version of a line that’s been there since the first draft.
4. Reactions. Having your character say ‘huh’ or ‘what’ might not be the most essential of reactions. Don’t be afraid to cut them, or sometimes you can also turn said dialogue into actions. Instead of taking a bunch of space just to have a character say ‘huh’, you can write ‘gasps in surprise’ in the action and save a couple of lines.
5. Simplify action. When it comes to action lines, most of the time less is more. I’ve known a few people who just balk at the sight of a page with more action than dialogue. If you’ve got a block of text that goes over four-five lines, rewording it will save you a lot of space.
Hopefully these tips will help you save some pages!