‘Rocky’ Writer Sylvester Stallone Endorses Clip Encouraging Newbies to Cut Their Scripts to ‘Fighting Weight’

Sylvester Stallone is one of the most talented and popular actors in Hollywood. Throughout, his acting career he has played and acted in many iconic roles. His popularity skyrocketed after the “Rocky” film series which many consider an iconic film. He played the role of a boxer in the film series. Not only did he play the protagonist but he was also a screenwriter for the films. The film series was so impactful that the actor has been associated with the sport of boxing ever since.

Recently, he took to Instagram and shared a story of a famous screenwriter dishing out a few words of advice for new writers.

Sylvester Stallone shares a clip suggesting cutting down the first draft of a screenplay

Many writers believe that great work is never written but rather rewritten. Stallone is one such individual who has the same opinion. He shared a video posted by @Outstanding Screenplays on his Instagram story.

The video featured popular American screenwriter Aaron Sorkin who shared some of his wisdom about screenwriting.

He stated, “So you figured out what the script is about. It’s probably fat and it’s probably long. Go back to the beginning of the script, and start writing it over and over again. Peel away things that don’t have anything to do with your story.”

He further added, “You are gonna discover that a problem that you are having in the third act isn’t really in the third act. It’s because you didn’t set it up properly in the first. So second draft, retype the whole thing, get it down to fighting weight.”

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Indeed, this process of drafting and re-drafting is quite common in screenplay writing. “Killing your darlings” is a common piece of advice in the writing industry. It infers cutting down on segments that are not relevant to the story at large.

Stallone supports the explanation behind re-writing

One may wonder, why exactly re-drafting is the only way possible to find out what is relevant to the story. Though, Sorkin suggests that one may not know since the process of writing will make the writer question many things.

He adds, “In the process of writing the first draft, by the time you get to the end of it, you’ve sort of discovered what the movie is about. You plotted a course to go due north, but as you were going you started going a little bit east and then a little bit more and when you end up going was northeast.”

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Indeed, these words of wisdom in writing can only be gained through years of experience. Needless to say, the fact that Stallone posted a video on his story only subscribes to the same philosophy.

What do you think of this process of writing? Do share your opinions with us in the comments below.