We’re constantly revising our lives here at TVWriter™. The way we see it, if we can just get it right we’re bound to get that Big Reward we’ve been searching for. You know, like selling our screenplay….
by Kara Holden
I love writing. I do. Love the creation of something that has never existed in the world before, love the way dialogue plays in my head, love the sound the keys make as I transcribe it to the page. But today I have a confession to make: as much as I love writing, I hate rewriting. Even now, I’m about ready to chuck my computer into the washing machine and set it on spin if my husband gives me one more note to make this opening paragraph “punchier.” There. Punchy enough?
I know, I know, don’t blame the messenger. And the truth is, like the famous quote points out, writing is rewriting. But the necessity of it doesn’t make it any easier. It is difficult, tedious and sometimes painful work. It hurts to whittle away words that hard work have wrought – to “kill your darlings” as Faulkner once quipped. Hard to look at your own work with a critical eye (or to stop being so critical in some cases). It is difficult to cut away lines you love, characters you have grown to adore and scenes you are proud of, simply because they aren’t moving the story forward.