One Pass at a Time: A Better Way to Rewrite

You know the advice. Fix the structure. Deepen the characters. Punch up the dialogue. Make every scene count.

It's like telling someone to "just play better" after they've lost a tennis match. The advice isn't wrong, it's just not actionable. What does "fix the structure" mean when you're staring at 110 pages? Where do you start?

Jack Epps Jr., who wrote Top Gun and Dick Tracy, developed a system over decades: the Pass Method. Instead of fixing everything at once, you make focused passes through your script. One pass for structure. One for character. One for dialogue.

Each pass makes the next more effective. Fix structure first and character problems surface. Fix character problems, and dialogue issues emerge. It multiplies.

Why Single-Focus Passes Work

Try to see everything and you see nothing. Focus on one element and patterns emerge.

Your protagonist doesn't make real decisions until page 40. Supporting characters only appear when the plot needs them. Your "subtext" is just text with extra steps.

During your structure pass, ignore dialogue problems. During your dialogue pass, ignore whether the theme lands. Counterintuitive, but that's why it works. You're training yourself to think in layers.

Finding Your Starting Point

Be honest about what's broken. Not surface problems, the structural issues making everything else wobble.

Structure: Can you describe what your story is about in one sentence? Not the plot, the story. If you're explaining what happens rather than what it means, you don't know your story yet.

Character: Remove character names from your dialogue. Could someone tell who's speaking? If all your characters sound like you on different days, you have character problems.

Scenes: Pick any scene. What does your protagonist want? What's stopping them? Can't answer in five seconds? The scene isn't doing enough.

Theme: What question is your script asking? Not "it's about family" or "it's about redemption." Those are topics, not questions.

Be honest about what's broken. That's where you start.

The Pass Sequence

Fix big problems before small ones.

Pass 1: Structure

Does this story build? Does each scene raise stakes and push toward collision? Can you track escalation?

Create a beat sheet. One line per scene:

• What happens

• What the protagonist wants

• Why this scene must happen now

If you're writing "this scene establishes that..." or "this reveals character by..." that scene is doing exposition disguised as story. Cut it or combine it with a scene where something actually happens.

Look for scenes that could swap positions. If Scene 34 and Scene 67 are interchangeable, your structure is broken. Each scene should be a domino that can only fall in sequence.

The hardest part is cutting. You have scenes you love, great dialogue, character beats you're proud of. If they don't build story, they go. Save them elsewhere if you must, but get them out.

Pass 2: Character

Are these people or plot devices?

Real people want specific things. Not "to be happy" or "to find themselves." Actual concrete goals they'll fight for.

For major characters:

• What they want (external goal)

• Why they want it (internal need)

• What they fear if they fail

• What lie they believe

• What truth they must learn

Go through every scene: How does this character's fear or lie affect their behavior here? If it doesn't, you're writing generic characters making convenient choices.

Hardest realization: your protagonist might be less interesting than your supporting character. Sometimes the person you thought was the lead is actually the obstacle. Be willing to restructure.

Pass 3: Scene Work

Each scene needs want/obstacle/outcome.

Scene by scene:

• Character enters wanting X

• Something prevents them from getting X

• Scene ends with them getting X, not getting X, or realizing X was wrong

• This outcome forces the next scene

Two people talking, then stopping? That's conversation, not a scene.

Test: Remove dialogue from your key scenes. Can you follow what happens through action alone? If not, you're too dialogue-dependent.

Scenes must change something. Someone learns, decides, loses. If the world is identical at the end, cut it.

Pass 4: Dialogue

Would humans actually say this?

Usually no. First-draft dialogue is information delivery disguised as conversation. Characters explain what they both know. They state feelings plainly. They mean exactly what they say.

Real people avoid, lie, deflect. They answer questions with questions. They use humor as armor or cruelty as intimacy.

For each dialogue scene: What does each character want that they're not saying? What are they hiding? What's the power dynamic?

Rewrite so characters try getting what they want without asking directly.

Cut ruthlessly. Three lines beats seven. Zero beats three.

If characters sound identical, you're writing your voice, not theirs. Give them different rhythms, vocabularies, ways of avoiding truth.

Pass 5: Theme

Theme is the question your story asks, not the answer it gives.

Good questions:

• Can we escape who we were?

• Is revenge just more violence?

• What do we owe people who hurt us?

Bad questions (just topics):

• Is family important?

• Should we forgive?

• What is love?

Different characters should represent different answers through actions, not speeches. If anyone explicitly states the theme, cut that line. The story explores the question through what people do.

Pass 6: Polish

Formatting, typos, inconsistent names, unclear headings.

Print it. Read every word aloud. If you stumble over action lines, simplify. If dialogue feels clunky, it'll feel clunky to actors.

Check:

• Overly detailed action lines (you're not directing)

• Scenes starting too early or ending too late

• Repeated information

• White space (aim for 50/50)

Typos and formatting errors signal amateur even when the story works.

Track Your Patterns

The Pass Method doesn't just improve this script. It improves how you write every script.

After each pass: What patterns did you notice? What mistakes do you repeat? What's easier now?

Maybe you write passive protagonists who watch things happen. Or dialogue that explains feelings. Or conflicts that never escalate.

These patterns matter. Now you know what to watch for next time.

When Are You Done?

You reach a point where more passes make it different, not better.

After polishing, close the file for two weeks. Come back and read like a producer with 49 other scripts in the stack. Would you keep reading?

Major problems (unclear goal, sagging second act, flat characters)? Another round.

Just small tweaks? Probably ready.

Then comes feedback. And doing it again.

The Real Work

The Pass Method is methodical, sometimes boring. It requires patience, honesty, and killing things you love. But it works.

Amateurs rewrite by feel, making random changes and hoping. Professionals rewrite systematically, one layer at a time.

Your first draft figures out the story. Your rewrites craft it into something others can experience. Pick a pass. Make it. Pick another. That's the work.

Photo Credit: Lorraine Flett