Rewriting Yourself Isn't a Sin, Even in Georgia

As I am temporarily in limbo, between Auditions I and Auditions II, I have creative time on my hands.

I'm still scrambling madly to find full-time work, mind you, but creatively I'm faced with the only thing I can do at this point: rewriting my show.

I'm one of those writers and composers who "fixes as they go". The common wisdom is just to write a first draft to get the story out, and then go back and fix things.

But I can't do that. If I see crap on my screen, and I know it's crap, I want it off of there immediately.

Quite frequently my first drafts will end up looking like final drafts because frankly, after I write something, I hate going over and over it. I get the most pleasure as I initially write it, and sometimes chuckle at my cleverness (alone in my apartment. It's very sad.) Or I see something no one else should ever see and use my handy CUT function or DELETE key.

Writing is a very schizophrenic process. Add a little love/hate into the mix as well.

So I'm rereading The Poptimists, and I'm not really shuddering too much. I think the compressed time limit I gave myself in writing it helped the quality. WAY back in school, the essays I wrote the night before were always A's, while the ones I researched and took my time with were B's, or even the incredibly rare C.

The pressure of having to complete something helps me block all the knuckleheaded mind wandering right out of my brain and I focus a lot more so I can just get it done!

So I'm looking at the book of the show, and I immediately remember it needs padding, since we've added an intermission. I want to give the audience a fuller evening now. Originally it was going to be 70 minutes without intermission. A Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat kind of thing. (a.k.a. A "bladder buster")

But my co-producing theater company makes a lot of their revenue from intermission. So, a padding we will go.

However, I'm now at the point where I want to wait until the show is cast. The individual talents and physical characteristics of the cast will dictate some of the content now. And, I'd rather write it right the first time, than rewrite it later. [see above rationalization]

That's one of the cool things about writing everything. I can change anything!

So ... instead of doing any rewriting on the show this past day-and-a-half, I instead wrote a spec script for Two and a Half Men. And I gave up writing for TV eight years ago.

I'm one of the few writers who procrastinates by writing. Or maybe I'm not. Maybe that's one of the Big Secrets of a number of writers. I used to have a lot of projects going at the same time, so I could switch between them as the mood and muse struck me. (Talk about naive ...)

A musical, a play, a sitcom, and sci-fi short story ... all in my mental In Basket. The downside of this approach is I only end up finishing about 30% of them ... because I don't have a deadline like I did in school.

Self-discipline, for me, has almost always been an oxymoron.

Don't get me wrong. I've written entire one-hour scripts in one 24-hour sitting. Then again, I've had projects lingering for decades. A New Year's song I wrote for my holiday CD Decembrance actually started 25 years ago. I had the main melodic phrase and two lines of lyrics done and didn't get back to them until 2007.

So I figure maybe I can finish all my projects ... if I live to be 297.

And even writing this entry is a stall of sorts. I just don't like rereading my stuff. I want to wait until I hear a real singer sing one of my songs, or an actor get the dialogue on its feet. Then I'll start rewriting like a banshee. (Do banshees have a writer's union?)

Yes, then I jump into action because my main concerns are:

1. The person nice enough to perform my material deserves to have the best I can give them. They shouldn't look like an idiot because the material's bad. (There are so many other ways one can look like an idiot, I don't want it to be my fault!)
2. The audience was nice enough to decide to see my show, get showered and dressed and come all the way down to the theater to see my show, and pay to see my show. I'll be damned if I ruin their evening!

Some writers and actors don't care about the audience. They feel creating a successful piece of theater has nothing to do with audience enjoyment or response.

Fine. If you truly feel that way, do Hamlet in your garage.

If you're charging admission and exposing your work to the public, you must be aware of the public. And you owe them at least a modicum of entertainment and enjoyment.

Whew! That was actually kind of deep, wasn't it? Give my brain a moment to catch its breath ... I hardly ever use words like "modicum" and now my head hurts.

[Insert cricket sounds]

So, I will lightly "tinker" with The Poptimists for the next two weeks. No major changes, just a little fine tuning until I get all ten performers set.

I suppose I should go read my script for Two and a Half Men before I consider submitting it ... but I really hate rewriting.

Next: I haven't the faintest idea.