Writing is Rewriting

Writing is rewriting, yes?  I’m sure we’ve all heard that before.  But it really is.  Very few scripts are perfect on their first draft.  And it’s something I learn and relearn every time I write.  In fact, it’s the back and forth between work shopping and rewriting that makes most good scripts what they are.  Last week I talked about my newest project with my new Youtube channel, Hyperdrive Pictures, and the logo I designed for it.  This last weekend we work shopped about seven scripts.  In every workshop you’re going to hear things about your script that work, and you’re inevitably going to hear things that don’t.  Oddly enough, you mostly hear about what doesn’t work.  For myself, it’s something I never get completely used to, but something I learn to deal with.

But you have to remember that writing is rewriting!  The comments and critiques you’re getting will help you develop a better script, and if they’re coming from people who really know writing and what they’re talking about, like the group I was working with, you know that the flaws they point out are honest mistakes in your work that need patching up.  So what I do is nod and say “good note” and do my best to see it from their point of view.  Most of the time.  Occasionally I reach something that I really think works the way it is and fight over it, but later on I’ll come around and see it their way.  Maybe there’s a balance there.  You’ve got to stick to some things and let go of others.  And in the rewrite you’ll find the balance that works.  After all, you can’t change everything in your script because someone else has a different idea, but changing the bits that matter can really make that final draft worth it.

So in the end, with the whole writing is rewriting thing in mind, I look at screenwriting like this.  Don’t get attached to your first draft, because you know it’s going to change if you really want it to be good.  Be glad you took that first step in making a potentially amazing script, and look forward to what it’ll evolve into as you nurture it into something better.