Anyone who knows me well, anyone who's been in workshop with me has heard me say that I firmly believe that:
Writing is intuitive.
Rewriting is analytical.
What does this mean? Well, I can say that when I start writing a new play or screenplay, I may have a kernel of an idea but I don't yet really know entirely where I want to go with it.
I'll give you an example by way of the origin story for my play, Bodily Function.
The idea began stirring within me during a brunch with my dear friend Jerry and some friends of his I didn't know too well. One of them was working for a multi-national corporation headquartered in Boston. During the brunch this person casually described one of his middle level managers who was visiting the restroom so often that it had started to raise eyebrows among other members of his team. And he was in the process of strategizing for ways to limit this employee's time spent in the john.
For whatever reason I was just bit by this offhand remark, for it really barely took up more than 2 minutes of our brunch conversation. And I found I could not shake the idea of a corporation monitoring the bathroom schedule of its employees.
For weeks this idea haunted me until one day I sat down to write what would become the backbone scene of the play, a one year review of a midlevel employee, a scene in which Suzanne Goodman, V.P. of Human Resources sits down with Donald Trieblasser to deliver the delicate news that some of his colleagues have noted his frequent bathroom breaks and the threat they presented to overall workplace morale.
Now that was all I had at the time and as I wrote I had no idea who the protagonist of the play would be.
As it turned out it grew to be clearer and clearer to me (only through writing the first draft of the play) that it had to be Suzanne. She became my obsession and the focus of the play. But when I began I may have mistakenly assumed it was Donald.
In this sense I'm convinced that the best writing is truly intuitive. We don't know why we veer off in one direction nor should we.
The process of getting out a first draft is a process built on trust.
We must trust our intuition (our unconscious mind) to take us to the deep end of the pool with our eyes closed.
But of course when we rewrite the play (or novel or short story or what have you), we turn on our analytical brain to do the delicate detail work of tinkering. Take this out, add a little here, shorten that sleeve, etc. etc.
But there's a step in between the intuitive step of writing the first draft and the analytical work of revision that too often I see writers try to leap-frog over, more often than not without even realizing they're doing it.
And that is the essential step of:
Assessing what it is we're making.
In my writing workshops, it's embodied in that moment when I ask the writer to ask each member of the circle:
What do you think my play (or screenplay) is about?
Because until we ask and answer for ourselves what it is we've put on the page, we run the risk of revising the work based on assumptions about what the piece is that were there when we began writing. And 90% of the time what I set out thinking I'm going to write and what I actually end up writing are two completely different things.
So if I go about revising based on assumptions held before I began writing, I'm going to be revising in a direction that's off-map for the actual work itself.
This is the most common problem I encounter in my own work and in the work of others. That's why I try to remember and remind others to make space in the process for DEEP ASSESSMENT of the CORE OF THE WORK before revving up those analytical engines.
It's too easy to get caught in a cycle of revising around in circles chasing the feedback of others particularly in the context of a workshop full of smart writers with creative minds. The only way we can ensure that we don't chase our own tails in an endless circle of revision with no end is if we carve out the mental space and the temporal space to get clear on what our baby is and what it wants to be before we embark on the next leg of its development.
And since I've become aware of this crucial step, I'm convinced my work has been more coherent and my process of revision has felt more alive, purposeful and powerful. Because as I revise in a clear direction, the work just gets palpably better.
The Roland Tec Online Writers Workshop 2021-22 begins November 9th and will be co-facilitated with award-winning Pittsburgh playwright and librettist Tammy Ryan. For application guidelines, visit: rolandtec.com/rtoww-21 . APPLICATION DEADLINE: OCTOBER 23.
