Here\u2019s an example of writing too quickly: this week I was made Deputy Chair of the national Writers\u2019 Guild of Great Britain. The End.<\/p>\n
I mean, that\u2019s factual and it\u2019s entirely accurate, but it doesn\u2019t do anything else. You can guess how I feel about this happening but that\u2019s more because you\u2019re you and you get these things, it\u2019s not that I\u2019ve conveyed it at all in the writing.<\/p>\n
Actually, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve grasped it all in order to convey it in the slightest, but the fact that this is taking a time to settle in my head is one thing that\u2019s made me want to talk to you about something else. The other prompt is that I\u2019ve just had a report on a script of mine and it\u2019s more praising than the best reviews I\u2019ve ever got for things that have been made.<\/p>\n
I can tell you the report was so good because it\u2019s also a rejection. I nearly didn\u2019t read it: once you read the first \u2018but\u2019 in the email, you know you\u2019re out. On the rare times I get any more detail I will file it away to read later and then never do, but this time it was more.<\/p>\n
Specifically, I\u2019d written the script at lightspeed and it failed so I knew the whole idea was rubbish, my writing just didn\u2019t cut it. I was going to scrap that and write something else.<\/p>\n
For some reason I read on and, cor, you should read this stuff. I now think it\u2019s my best work in ages. Okay, my best rejected work, but still.<\/p>\n
So let you and I both take a telling from this: read the feedback. <\/p>\n
But.<\/p>\n
Feeling good about this does put the idea back on the top of pile but it doesn\u2019t take away the fact that I wrote it at ludicrous speed.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been thinking about on multiple long train journeys all week.<\/p>\n
I think I write at my best when I am writing at speed \u2013 and that this isn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen this before, most especially with articles and books where if it comes easily, it reads the best. When it\u2019s a slog, you can feel that as a reader and the life is gone from it.<\/p>\n
When there\u2019s time on an article that\u2019s gone wrong like this, I will walk away, come back and try a second blast-draft to see where I get. Invariably it\u2019s better but invariably I also hold back because I\u2019m afraid of getting it wrong again. So we get a third go and it becomes okay. It\u2019s only ever very good when it flowed easily the first time.<\/p>\n
I did think about this sample script for a fortnight and it\u2019s an idea I\u2019ve had plus written short stories around for at least three years but the total time from writing FADE IN: to about 15 pages later is measured in hours. Single-figure hours.<\/p>\n
Which is all very nice for me. Except I can make a good article this way and I believe I can write a fair book, but there\u2019s a limit with scripts. I think at my best I am able to make a script be very, very good \u2013\u00a0but not great. But lacking.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the problem. It needs work \u2013 this script, all scripts \u2013 and the more I work at a piece, the worse it gets.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to have to pull my finger out, aren\u2019t I?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s an example of writing too quickly: this week I was made Deputy Chair of the national Writers\u2019 Guild of … Continue reading