I\u2019ve been working on a draft these past couple of weeks, so I have the writing process on my mind. <\/p>\n

I was chatting with a couple of writer friends the other day and they both said when they\u2019re drafting, they start the writing day by re-reading the previous day\u2019s pages and editing them. This helps to get back into the state of mind of the piece, for continuity, character and tone. <\/p>\n

I myself haven\u2019t used this technique too much because I usually try to just get through the first draft and crank it out without engaging my critic too much \u2013 however, I feel that I\u2019m probably at a disadvantage in not reading the previous pages. The next draft I\u2019ll definitely use that technique. <\/p>\n

I just finished a draft this week, and for me, it\u2019s always easier to write once I\u2019m sitting down and writing. It\u2019s harder for me to write in bits and pieces, here and there \u2013 I really need to block out chunks of time. But the best way in that block to get back into the feeling of the piece is to re-read your pages. <\/p>\n

I suppose I\u2019ve always had a slight resistance to editing before I write simply because I feel they\u2019re two separate brain spaces: left (editing) and right (creative). Once I get into the editing zone, I can slash and burn pretty easily (or just rewrite everything). However, in that create space, I\u2019m able to generate more freely without invoking the critic. However, what I\u2019ll likely try to do is simply re-read the pages without engaging too intensely with my critic, and then edit whatever feels natural in the re-read. <\/p>\n

Years ago I saw a lecture by David Self (Thirteen Days<\/em>), who explained that he started off every morning by reading the whole script up to the point he was writing. That sounded to me at the time like a lot of time every morning before actually getting to the writing, but I now understand that it enriches the world by looking over everything carefully, and would really help with the emotional trajectory of the characters to dig back into the journey before continuing on. If you think about it, this would only be more time consuming once you\u2019re past the midpoint, as up until then, it wouldn\u2019t be too slow a read. <\/p>\n

So, start the next day by editing the pages you\u2019ve written the day before. If every day you begin that writing day by re-reading the previous day\u2019s pages, if not more, then by the time you get through that draft, it won\u2019t be a first draft anymore, but it will be more carefully edited. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been working on a draft these past couple of weeks, so I have the writing process on my mind. I was chatting with a couple of writer friends the other day and they both said when they\u2019re drafting, they start the writing day by re-reading the previous day\u2019s pages and editing them. This helps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[40,5,3,4,38],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}