Editing is fun!

My publisher's ethos is true!

Editing is fun!

Not only have I recently re-edited my manuscript for Swan's Song's short story collection (don't worry Gaynor, this was before I sent you the copy!) but I am also currently re-formatting my fourth screenplay, tightening dialogue and re-shaping scenes.

It's far more fun than actually writing!

With writing, there's all sorts of worries. Am I going too far? Am I not going too far enough? How am I going to give this a satisfactory resolution? Have I wandered too far from the beaten path? Do the character's motivations ring true? Have I lost sight of the original premise?

And so on and so forth......

With editing, with the story already in place, you have the blessed gift of hindsight. The writing is behind you, you know the story, all you have to do is take a craft knife and shape that puppy into a lean, mean emotion machine! That's not to say big changes aren't options (I once changed an entire third act and added a character purely on impulse) but there's no pressure to be creative. All you have to do is shape, tighten, sweeten, make better, make good, monkey see, monkey do...

Love it!

Scriptwriting is boring.

That's never been disputed. You have to rein yourself in, control your inner 'writer' from expounding on all sorts of shite! It's basic and simple, technical and methodical, but also very liberating. It's all very straightforward. A prose in a novel can get very convoluted, very easily, anyone who's ever wrote a book could agree with the sense of that. Am I flogging the dead pony? How many times do you have to question yourself; have I made this point succinctly enough?

And on that rather relevant note, have I made my point?

Editing is fun because there's no pressure.

Is there pressure when you're actually writing?

You better believe it sister!