Jack: Do you like itnote ?
Wendy: I think it could use some plot development, and maybe some more well rounded characters.
Jack: It's just a first draft...
Wendy: I think it could use some plot development, and maybe some more well rounded characters.
Jack: It's just a first draft...
—First draft of The Shining
Sh*t Rough Drafts is a book by Paul Laudiero in which he shows excerpts from the first drafts of many different books, movies and TV shows, often complete with editors' commentary, showing how they might have looked in their first drafts before being revised into the form we all know today.
The book contains examples of:
- Big "WHAT?!": In the rough draft for The Godfather, this is Sonny's reaction to getting a dead fish and learning that Luca Brasi was turned into a fish.
- Blunt "No": Some aspects of first drafts get an emphatic "No" from their respective editor(s).
- Comically Missing the Point: In the rough draft for The Shining, Wendy offers some constructive criticism on Jack's "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" page, as opposed to realizing that her husband has gone off the deep end.
- Curse Cut Short: In the Django Unchained rough draft, a white guy starts to let off a racial slur before the eponymous character kills him.
- First-Name Basis: The editors call the writers by their first names regardless of the time or place.
- Food Slap: In the The Hunger Games rough draft, Peeta saves Katniss by throwing a croissant at the boy from District 9.
- Four Is Death: In the original Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows rough draft, there are four Deathly Hallows- the Invisibility Cloak, the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and a variety of other silly items.
- Gender Bender: In the The Fellowship of the Ring rough draft, Gandalf turns Frodo into a girl after Frodo protests that rings are for girls.
- Hating on Monday: In the Robinson Crusoe rough draft, after Robinson names the man he saved after his favorite day of the week, Monday, the editor writes, "Daniel. This is the worst day of the week."
- LOL, 69: The working title for Fifty Shadesof Gray is 69 Shades of Gray.
- Omniglot: In the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets rough draft, Harry can not only speak English and Parseltongue, but also Italian, Spanish and French, "Pretty much all of the Romance languages."
- Overly Long Gag: The Great Expectations rough draft is an entire page of Pip being asked what his name is.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: In the Batman Begins roughdraft, after asks, "Why do we fall, Master Bruce?" Bruce replies that he tripped on his cape.
- Say My Name: In the A Streetcar Named Desire rough draft, Stanley screams Stella's name, with the A sound taking up most of the page.
- Skewed Priorities: In the The Hobbit rough draft, Bilbo spends so long asking why the wolves are called "wargs" that he gets eaten.
- Take That!: An excerpt from Fahrenheit 451 has the author claim that it's "Better than that "1984" book by Orwell."
- Title Drop: In the Fast & Furious 6 rough draft, an officer asks why he pulled over Dom, and Dom says he was going fast. The officer adds, "Fast... and FURIOUS," prompting the editor to ask, "Why?"
