The Bluecat Screenplay Competition blog recently alerted me to this excellent TED Talk given by Phil Lord, the co-writer and co-director of 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie. Phil gives a great speech on the process of writing and rewriting. And if you feel like binge watching TED Talks, our friends over at Screencraft have... Continue Reading →
Why You Should Write a Sh*tty First Draft
[This article was originally published on Talentville, an online community for screenwriters.] by Angela Bourassa These words should be a comfort to any writer, whether you're starting your first short script or writing the final pages of your tenth screenplay. The first draft of ANYTHING is shit. Granted, your first drafts should get better as you... Continue Reading →
Quote of the Day: Robert Cormier
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.
Quote of the Day: Stephen King
When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.
Quote of the Day: Frank Yerby
It is my contention that a really great novel is made with a knife and not a pen. A novelist must have the intestinal fortitude to cut out even the most brilliant passage so long as it doesn't advance the story.
Quote of the Day: John Hersey
To be a writer is to sit down at one's desk in the chill portion of every day, and to write; not waiting for the little jet of the blue flame of genius to start from the breastbone - just plain going at it, in pain and delight. To be a writer is to throw away a great deal, not to be satisfied, to type again, and then again, and once more, and over and over....
Rewriting: Finding the Will to Take a Machete to Your Script
Jenna Avery of Script Magazine has written a helpful article about approaching rewriting with the right mindset.
Quote of the Day: Joyce Carol Oates
I am inclined to think that as I grow older I will come to be infatuated with the art of revision, and there may come a time when I will dread giving up a novel at all.
Quote of the Day: Amos Bronson Alcott
Sleep on your writing: take a walk over it; scrutinize it of a morning; review it of an afternoon; digest it after a meal; let it sleep in your drawer a twelvemonth; never venture a whisper about it to your friend, if he be an author especially.
Quote of the Day: Oscar Wilde
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning and took out a comma. In the afternoon, I put it back in.