A writing experiment of sorts this week has yielded some very interesting results.

I took several drafts of a script and started typing out a new one that combined elements of all of them. Scenes, dialogue, etc. This was primarily to see if it would help me identify what needed work, changing, fixing, and so on.

As I worked my way through, more and more items needing my attention kept popping up. It made me realize this really was going to be the major rewrite/0verhaul I’d expected it to be. Possibly even more so.

And for that I am very grateful.

I don’t know if I would have seen these problem spots or reached this same conclusion if I had just gone through a hard copy of the script with a red pen, marking stuff up. Maybe it’s that specific eye-finger-brain connection while you’re typing that makes you a little more aware of what it is you’re actually typing.

For the time being, I’m deciding between continuing all the way through to the end or starting over at page one. I’m tempted to do the former because that might reveal more problems and issues that need addressing, and it’s probably better to be aware of those earlier rather than later.

All of these pending changes at first seem very challenging, but I have to remind myself I’ve figured my way through similar kinds of problems before, so there’s no reason this time should be any different.

Fingers crossed.