Posts
This is the typical cycle of my feelings towards any given script I write:
Stage 1: in which I am wildly enthused about my most recent scribblings. And decide that it is by far the best thing I've ever written.
Stage 2: doubt creeps in. It's good but...
Editing ensues. It's brilliant again! Stage 1 and 2 can take a little while.
Stage 3: It's bloody awful. Irredemable. Why did I ever think I could write. I'm an idiot.
(At this stage I pause and go away and do something else to forget about it all. I'd like to pretend that 'something else' is generally a highbrow cultural event, but more often than not its those Friends repeats on E4. Still! What's wrong with me? I have no idea.)
Stage 4: Revelation: the final piece slots into place, and I have a script that is - in my head at least - somewhere on the scale of not bad to quite good.
In case you're wondering, I'm somewhere between stages 3 and 4, so metaphorically speaking on the Friends repeats.
Something is definitely missing from my latest script. I just can't work out what.
One problem is that I feel like I'm beating people around the head to make my point. So it needs some nuance. And after months and months of writing short, sharp scenes, I've gone a bit mentile and decided to write a sustained piece over 15 minutes real time, which requires quite a lot of skill with pacing that I'm not sure I have yet. But for it to work at all, it has to work in this format.
Sigh.
Wonder what Ross and Rachel are up to.
4 comments:
Just found this blog and I like the heck out of it. Thanks for the goodness!
Ah thanks Miss Pearson, you're too kind!
your honesty about the editing process is so refreshing.
When I'm asked to edit/rescue short stories, I label them 'AWFUL' and then work from there, slowly inching towards middle ground.
Interesting technique! I sometimes write the word NOTES at the top of a page to let myself write any old nonsense without worrying too much about where it's going.
This wasn't an entirely full picture of the editing process by the way: I probably missed out a lot of the uncertainty and swearing involved... :)
Post a Comment