Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Massaging the Rewrite

I went to the Hollywood Fresh market on Sunday to go out, get some good food and relax as I got a massage. There's a licensed massage therapist there, John, who's been keeping your mad pulp bastard functioning for the past 5 years.

Every time, I sit down in the massage chair and before I know it I'm out like a light. I wake up and my shoulders and upper back actually function properly and I can go about my coming week and wrench them into the sorry, stressful state I arrived in.

One thing that's interesting about massage (and yes, this is going to be a metaphor for rewriting so shut up and listen) is that when you massage one bodypart it has a similar relaxing effect on parallel body parts. If you massage one shoulder, the other shoulder will relax as well. You hit that one spot on your back, you're goingto feel it all the way down to your big toe.

This is a lot like rewriting (See?! Told you I'd get there!).

If you rewrite one aspect of your script it affects other aspects of your script. Change something in Act One it's going to affect Acts Two and Three. Change someone's name it's going to affect how people who read your script see the character. You can Have Charlie Brown stand meekly in the corner at the dance. You can't have Dirk Masterson do the same.

So when you're rewriting, remember that what you do in one place in your story affects the rest.

Above all relax, it's just a rewrite.

No comments: