I'm Doing It All Wrong

There is no one right way to write. But I think I'm doing it all wrong. I just started a brand new first draft of my TV pilot script. Here's my progression this week:

Day one - 4 pages total

Day two - 7 pages total

Day three - 5 pages total

Day four - 5 pages total

To make it painstakingly clear, my total page count went up three pages from one day to the next, then dropped by two pages and stayed there for two days, even though I was writing each of those days. "Heresy!" you say. Calm yourselves; it's not witchery, nor logistical impossibility, just the result of some premature editing.

I write seven pages. Great. I go back, read the last two, they're boring, so I spice them up and condense them to one page. In total, I've just reduced my script but in quality I've just increased its value. I think. I simply cannot move forward when my previous stuff is so abysmal - it grates on my creative nerves.

Every time I rewrite, I crumple a blank piece of paper and throw it behind me.

My insecurity with this process lies in the fact that every professional level advice I've ever gotten about writing and rewriting is that you don't do this edit as you write thing. You basically vomit your first draft all over the screen and then when it is completely finished you go back and fix it all. The rewrite. The theory is that this way you will at least complete something, which is very important, and not get stuck trying to perfect every word until you're so sick of it that it never gets finished.

I believe this to be true. And I also disagree.

If I were to tell a beginner writer, someone still insecure and unaware about their own process, how to go about writing their script I would most definitely suggest this all-caution-to-the-wind form of first drafting (after rigorous outlining, of course) because it is a surefire way to get some satisfaction from actually completing something early on. When you're somehow not sure that you will actually finish a work, you need the speed and momentum of this process.

But knowing full well that I will complete this script, when I get to the end I want the best possible version and that is just going to happen my way. I edit as I go. Then I finish, and rewrite some more. And some more. And some more. It makes things better. It works for me. I am not ashamed. Hurl thy stones, I shall not be averted!

Obviously my blog posts are not held to this standard. It's also possible that my constant editing is an indication of some deficit in my outlining. Maybe. Probably. But mostly, this is how I choose to do it right now and so this is the way it is. Take your imperfect methods, your amateur habits, and get the stuff out there and onto a page. That's it. That's the whole thing. Oh yeah, and finish it. Mortal Kombat style KO that shit into submission!

This is exactly what finishing feels like.