My first experience with the infamous red pen was an office hours visit with my screenwriting professor at Uconn. I brought my first ever completed screenplay, a WWII actioner with a plot stolen from Seven Samurai, for him to review. He soon set about slashing superfluous sentences with a red ball point pen. As someone 'sensitive' to criticism I would've expected each passing cut to literally draw blood. Instead I felt a sense of relief and liberation. I had written a novel and this was supposed to be a screenplay. In sweeping streaks of crimson he taught me the invaluable screenwriting lesson of having more "white on the page."
Recently I submitted a short story to a writers workshop and received a dozen copies back, each with their own red hatch marks correcting grammar and inserting copious amounts of absent commas. While this kind of editorial proofreading proves invaluable, it doesn't address the aspects of storytelling. For that one must look to the comments written in red on the margins and the back pages. As I read through the stack returned to me and weighed each reviewer's thoughts, I realized that I had to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff. But how does one go about doing that? How does one move past the the initial knee-jerk reactions of wounded pride to honestly address problems inherent to their story?
Then I happened upon Neil Gaiman's 8 Good Writing Practices.
http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/670
Number 5 in particular caught my attention:
Recently I submitted a short story to a writers workshop and received a dozen copies back, each with their own red hatch marks correcting grammar and inserting copious amounts of absent commas. While this kind of editorial proofreading proves invaluable, it doesn't address the aspects of storytelling. For that one must look to the comments written in red on the margins and the back pages. As I read through the stack returned to me and weighed each reviewer's thoughts, I realized that I had to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff. But how does one go about doing that? How does one move past the the initial knee-jerk reactions of wounded pride to honestly address problems inherent to their story?
Then I happened upon Neil Gaiman's 8 Good Writing Practices.
http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/670
Number 5 in particular caught my attention:
Remember: when people tell you somethings wrong or doesnt work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
And so bearing that bit of wisdom in mind, I began sifting through the various suggestions and advice provided by the group. When I came upon parts labeled 'confusing' or found a consensus for a certain part to reworked I made note. But when I came upon specific suggestions as to what to do to 'fix' my story, I read them with a suspicious eye. The more adamant the advice the more I tended to dismiss it. Now armed with the cream of the crop I'm ready to begin the next draft and when I submit it to the next writers workshop for review hopefully there'll be less red on the page.
Jeff
Jeff