The best thing, and the worst thing, about coming to the FADE OUT on a script, is the realization that I only have a few short moments of exultation before the real work begins. After the first rough draft it's almost a luxury to crawl back over the words to clean out the flotsam and jetsam (where the hell did these words come from and do they ever stand on their own? "Cyril, did you take out the jetsam?")- it gives me the satisfaction of straightening out a neglected closet. I know there will be those painful moments where a certain piece of dialogue I thought was brilliant turns out to be a pile of embarrassing crap, but the challenge to make it better kicks me in the butt and gives me the energy to get back into the game of characters and story. This is what it's like when I'm rewriting my spec scripts...alone...no time restraints or notes.
Rewriting from notes given by readers or a producer brings another type of challenge: it means satisfying somebody else's opinion about a certain element (or entire acts) of a script. Sometimes I disagree with those notes, but try to understand why they're saying what they're saying. My writer's ego can get in the way and often does. Being a professional means understanding the nature of the business - it's collaborative dummy! It takes a whole lotta folks and money to make a film, and everyone wants - and needs - it to be the best it can be.
When the process gets too heavy (the script seems to be getting worse with every pass, or I feel like every original idea has abandoned me for good)I press the rewind button and try to remember why I wrote the damn thing in the first place! We all have tricks to stop us from abandoning the sinking ship - I cook, ramble around the web, walk my dog, and phone a friend who's up for a 2 hour blab fest. Oh yeah, and sometimes a shot of Irish whisky does wonders to quiet the nagging doubt.
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