Polish

Understanding Polish

A polish assumes the script is structurally sound. You are not rethinking the story — you are making it read better. Typical polish work: cutting unnecessary words from action lines, sharpening dialogue so each line earns its place, fixing continuity errors, ensuring character voices are distinct, trimming page count, and landing the ending. In the industry, a "polish" is also a contractual term — a writer hired to polish a script receives a smaller fee and sometimes no credit, since the changes are not substantial enough to qualify for a writing credit under WGA rules. Writers often underestimate how many polish passes a script needs. Most professional screenplays go through five or more polishes before they are considered finished.

Example in a Screenplay

BEFORE POLISH:

Sarah walks into the room and looks around at everything
and notices that the furniture has all been moved and the
windows have been opened and there is a smell of cleaning
products in the air.

AFTER POLISH:

Sarah enters. Stops. Every piece of furniture has been
moved. Windows open. The sharp smell of bleach.

(Same information. Half the words. Twice the impact.)

Common Mistakes

Related Terms