In this episode I talk about rewrites and revision after spending a month or so working on a second draft. I touch on:
- Revision as a chance to ‘re-vision’ the story, seeing it through new eyes and with more depth than what was possible in a first draft.
- Loosely structuring the play by each narrative thread. Considering each thread of the story as it’s own narrative, then asking if each narrative only had five moments of stage time, which five moments would I choose? Then writing the five moments for each thread onto index cards and shuffling them around to see what felt right (I have 25 index cards because I have five narrative threads in my play).
- The moments you choose will depend on who you are as a writer, what you’re drawn to and your aesthetic and voice as an artist.
- Overcoming decision fatigue.
- Using index cards (described above) and selecting one per writing session to focus on for rewrites.
- Aiming for manageable and meaningful progress each time I sit down to write. Making it manageable is key. You can’t think about all of the changes for all of the sections in each writing session. Keep it focused on one piece of the puzzle at a time.
This episode was originally recorded in January 2021. You can watch the video diary here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CKtQICVHKg_/