Better to give your writing time?

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  • Better to give your writing time?

    Wow I havent been on here in a while...

    Anyways...Do you think your revisions (not just proof reading) to a script the second time around are better than the first time you wrote it...

    If that confused you here is what I did...i wrote one of my first scripts back in October of 06, i got about half way done and had to set it aside because of college work. Well now I'm home for the summer and bored and decided to look at it again. I read through it and made some changes, proofreading errors as well as ideas/tweeking dialogue/flow things like that. So do you believe setting your script aside for a while (pretty much forgetting what you wrote) and then reading it later helps. Should a person's idea's and point of views be better the 2nd go around or stick to the original thought back then?

    Just curious if anyone does this regularly or anything like that...plus i havent posted in a while
    Quack.

    Writer on a cable drama.

  • #2
    Re: Better to give your writing time?

    I ALWAYS put my scripts aside between drafts, specifically because I can come back to it with a clear fresh mind and am able to see it without the baggage of assumed knowledge. I can see, after a break, if what I thought I'd written is actually on the page and not just in some parallel universe in my head. It also helps me to get a clearer idea of where I want to go with it, particularly if I've had issues with plot or character.

    I would never send out a script to anyone unless I'd allowed it to sit (usually a few weeks, even more if possible) without touching before having another bash at it. If I find I'm switching back and forth between commas and words that I'd already used but had changed, or unediting stuff I've already edited, then I decide it's time to part with it for good. Or at least until someone will pay me to change it.
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    • #3
      Re: Better to give your writing time?

      Originally posted by nic.h View Post
      I can see, after a break, if what I thought I'd written is actually on the page and not just in some parallel universe in my head.
      I totally understand that part, sometimes i leave out small things because i know them but forget no one else does. Thanks!
      Quack.

      Writer on a cable drama.

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      • #4
        Re: Better to give your writing time?

        I'm rewriting my second script (see me venting in my thread "Killing Your Darlings" here). This rewrite came after several months of me thinking I was finished and I (and others) loved, loved, loved my script. And then...time and outer influences happened and now I love, love, love the new direction the script is taking (even though I have to rewrite the whole thing), with a more active protagonist, stronger plot, and greater comedic moments.

        Yes, time is essential. Maybe I'll get around to tackling a rewrite of my first script I finished in...damn, I've been working on this one for a long time. But I'm still passionate about and I get other people excited about it when I tell them about it, so that makes me feel better. Not a lot better, but a little bit better. (Oh, wait, until this past January, I had a full-time day job -- still have that -- and was a full-time college student. I feel a lot better!)

        Also something I did differently this time around is sharing my ideas with people, bouncing them off whomever will listen to me and getting feedback and suggestions. It's taken my ideas and writing to a whole new level.

        "We're all immigrants now, man."
        - Zia (Patrick Fugit), "Wristcutters: A Love Story"

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        • #5
          Re: Better to give your writing time?

          ducky

          if you went back to a half-finished first draft -- this isn't a revision. it's finishing the first draft.

          are you asking whether a first draft should be rewritten. of course it should. or, are you asking whether a draft will improve on rewrite -- maybe, depends on whether the writer has any talent. i'd feel sorry for a writer that couldn't improve a first draft on rewrite -- that guy should hang it up.

          on the other hand, you ask: Should a person's idea's and point of views be better the 2nd go around or stick to the original thought back then?

          well, let me just say this: a person's idea's point of view(s) may or may not change. the 2nd go around might call for a different approach or it may be best to stick to the original thought (that you had back then)


          mb

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          • #6
            Re: Better to give your writing time?

            Originally posted by kojled View Post
            ducky

            if you went back to a half-finished first draft -- this isn't a revision. it's finishing the first draft.
            mb

            Right..bad choice of words lol my brain has shut off for summer, well i intend on finishing it, sad thing is i just re read what i had, didnt get around to adding more, i guess ive just been busy trying to be 18

            thanks on the advice
            Quack.

            Writer on a cable drama.

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            • #7
              Re: Better to give your writing time?

              Ducks,

              I think setting your script aside is a must, IMHO.

              For my first feature spec, I set it aside for almost 7 months (partially because I labored over it like the virgin birth of a 12-lb. baby) and then went over it and found a completely different ending. Also, my motives for the main character being the way she was were clarified in that time.

              For my TV drama spec, it was set aside for only two weeks. I had a self-imposed deadline and readers looking at it, so I just took a break...and found several non-sequiturs and typos that weren't caught before. It also allowed me to rearrange the act breaks and cut it down from 62 pages to 54.

              I couldn't have been that ruthless if I hadn't had a little distance.
              I'm always right.

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              • #8
                Re: Better to give your writing time?

                I consider myself "still working" on a script I last touched two and a half years ago, and if I ever think of a way to improve on it in some meaningful way, I'll pull it out and do it. The same goes for any of my other scripts. That, to me, is what writing is about. Each of my screenplays is a story I'm always telling myself over and over, and if I find a point at which I can improve it or my telling of it, I'll do it. And that only comes with time.

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                • #9
                  Re: Better to give your writing time?

                  If you can set work aside and come back to it with fresh eyes then do it. Unfortunately that luxury isn't always available. At a certain point the ability to turn work around fast, while maintaining quality, becomes essential.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Better to give your writing time?

                    Currently working on two scripts, and this is working really well - I spend alternate weeks on each, and then go back, and rewrite huge chunks. This means that I have no idea when the first draft of either will be finished, but both are getting better and better.
                    Where is that large automobile? And you may tell yourself, This is not my beautiful house! And you may tell yourself This is not my beautiful wife!

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                    • #11
                      Re: Better to give your writing time?

                      I'll second Magicman35. Distance can be a great thing, but you need to learn to produce good, professional material under deadline. You don't always have six months or a year to get it right. Sometimes a week is enough.

                      Another thing to consider is this: Does more time actually equal more quality?

                      I'm not so sure it does. My best stuff has been written under very tight deadline. 4 days for an hour-long TV episode that was shooting the following week. From scratch with no story. And with the flu. It was probably my best episode, for whatever that's worth.

                      My worst scripts have been the ones that I wrote, let sit for months or years, came back to and rewrote again and again. They were like overworked bread dough -- no life. I would've been better off starting over with new ingredients and a new recipe.

                      That was an important lesson for me to learn. That sometimes you can't fix it. You just gotta start over, or else toss it altogether. Chalk it up to education and move on to something else. You learn more from your failures than your successes anyway. That's why I'm such a damn know-it-all.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Better to give your writing time?

                        Originally posted by dgl View Post
                        That was an important lesson for me to learn. That sometimes you can't fix it. You just gotta start over, or else toss it altogether. Chalk it up to education and move on to something else. You learn more from your failures than your successes anyway. That's why I'm such a damn know-it-all.
                        I will never admit that I have bad ideas!

                        Okay, this one time when I was 11, I tried to melt crayons in a broiler and they caught on fire. I wanted to make shapes out of the mixed colors. And then I tried to put it out with water, but I didn't realize it was a grease fire, so that caused a huge flash fire up the front of the oven. That experiment was not such a good idea in retrospect.

                        "We're all immigrants now, man."
                        - Zia (Patrick Fugit), "Wristcutters: A Love Story"

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