I'm Done! Well, not really done...actually, yes I am done. But not finished. For the last few months I have been rewriting a play that I wrote Jared Hawthorne: Marriage Counselor to the Stars. I was lucky enough to get someone to produce it at a local level, again. It is a fairly simple script, but rewriting sure causes some big headaches. This is a note to all you other writers out there.
Revising is easy. You go through a script or manuscript and make slight changes to dialogue or actions so that it reads better. It's like editing. It's easy, and sometimes fun because it gives you the false sense that you are actually accomplishing something. I will admit that sometimes near the very very very end of the writing process it's necessary and in those circumstances, useful. However, what we dread and forget often comes in the form of re-writing, not revising. Pages upon pages of manuscript head straight for the trash, and we rewrite them. This is necessary, often painful, and always delightful.
I sat at my computer thinking (or more truthfully away from my computer trying anything and everything to keep me from writing) for nearly a month before jumping in on the rewrite. The problem was this: I didn't know what to change. I knew that I needed a change. I understood that my script had problems that needed addressing. But I didn't know what to toss and what to keep. So I started revising. I walked through the script word by word making slight changes until it hit me. Then I scrolled back about twenty pages and hit delete. It was liberating.
I sat there and completely changed two or three major elements and a whole new story grew. Actually, it is the same story, but it's better. So, now I'm done. I turned in the pages for review and it's time to wait. But I'm not finished. We're never finished until someone prints, buys, produces our work (preferably all three). Such is the lot of writers. And it's wonderful
