Also known as page-one · ground-up rewrite
A ground-up rewrite that rebuilds the script from a new structural plan while keeping what still serves the story — not a line edit.
A page-one rewrite starts from a new structural plan: new want, new act design, or a premise that finally has teeth. Keep the old draft available on a named save point or a full draft line so useful scenes remain recoverable without trapping you inside the broken engine you are leaving behind.
Rebuild against a fresh beat sheet before you rescue favorite set pieces from the prior draft. Nostalgia reintroduces the old structure one "keep this" at a time. When an experiment is local -- another button, another scene landing -- use a take and promote the winner instead of forking the whole document.
Draft-line incorporate in Phase 1 is whole-document source-wins: the source tree replaces the target, and the source is archived. It is not scene cherry-picking. For scene-scoped winners after a rebuild, use Takes with Promote; selective draft-line incorporate is not yet available on purpose.
When the premise, protagonist want, or act design is wrong. If cosmetics cannot hide a soft engine, stop polishing and rebuild from a new plan.
Park the prior draft on a save point or draft line, rebuild against new beats, then recover only what still earns its place under the new spine.
Use a draft line when the whole document must live in parallel. Use a take when you are testing a scene or act alternate inside the rebuild.
Not yet for draft-line incorporate -- Phase 1 replaces the whole target document from the source. For scene-scoped winners, use Takes and Promote.
