Rewriting and Not Rewriting

Good Afternoon. Gigi the poodle here introducing another weekly blog entry. Today on our lovely walk we almost got hit by a van…the Maltese was also involved. You would think that with the raging outbreak there would be less cars on the road but alas individuals are getting restless. We see more of them venturing out every day. From what we have read Target, Costco and Walmart have apparently become theme parks for the bored. However, being mostly homebodies, we seem to have an endless list of jobs to get done. I for one had a bath this week. Dreadful! At least the Maltese had one too. And much to my joy it made him cold and miserable… Anyway, without further ado, here is my novelist.

As you may know I’ve been moving along getting my book series ready for copyright and publication. I am presently working on the fourth volume. I had been zipping along fine until I had to change a scene. I spent most of yesterday and the day before pounding my head trying to think out how to alter it and it came down to moving one item from one of the later books and implanting it in this book instead.

Without giving too much away, the reason I had to change the scene was to create balance between my characters. For the scene I was working on, two of the characters needed to be at a cospatial place point in their arc. From the time I originally wrote the scene it never felt quite right. Although it is not the most troublesome scene in my series (there is one in a later book that is going to be challenging) it always bugged me. But once I made that change the whole scene finally and immediately made sense. I will have to slightly alter the other book I had to lift the information from, but it will be far easier to change that than it would have been had I kept the information out of the scene I have now. My thought is a scene is never right until the writer knows its right.

Now, that said I am not a writer who likes to do excessive rewriting. I do not see the point. Isaac Asimov was that way too. And although I am not a science fiction writer per say (although I dabble in it), I believe he and I have a meeting of the minds. If something needs to be revised revise it. If not, why punish yourself? What is the point of writing something over and over if your original instinct was (as it often is) correct? As soon as I made the change in my story everything clicked and where the characters are in my story now finally makes sense. But did I need to completely trash the scene, rip it up ten times to make it work? Of course not!

Perhaps I dislike overt rewriting because, like Asimov, I am an intuitive thinking writer, not an intuitive feeling one. Intuitive thinkers are anomalies amongst writers. Most writers are intuitive feeling. Most, screenwriters are ENFJs and most novelists are INFJs. But there are exceptions. Some writers who are listed as intuitive thinking include Jane Austin, C.S. Lewis, Ayn Rand, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, Chuck Palahniuk, Tina Fey, Christopher Nolan, Harper Lee, Lewis Carroll, Robert James Waller, and of course Isaac Asimov.

Intuitive thinking writers are strategic. We plan out what we are going to do before we execute it. A good example of how I work can be found in the thirteenth episode of season one of the television series LOST entitled Hearts and Minds where Locke delivers a monologue to Boone about Michelangelo. I think perhaps many thinking writers see a thorough vision mentally before they physically write it down. For me I never get far into a story I am working on before I know the ending. Once I know where I am going, I drive that direction. A feeling writer on the other hand might to want to indulge more in the journey and see where their story goes. They may not know their ending until they are further into their piece or maybe not until they get to the end. If I wrote that way, I would go insane. Neither way is right not wrong. Both are legitimate. They are simply different.

While you’re waiting for my next blog you can check out my novel Chicane available at Amazon.

STREAM OF THE WEEK: COMEDIES THAT ARE ACTUALLY FUNNY: KINGPIN AND THE HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE-Amazon Prime

Since I have listed serious films the past few weeks, I thought it would be good to pick out a couple of comedies. I think comedic films are the most difficult to find on streaming because a lot of them are not as funny as they should be. Or for that matter not funny at all. There are some, however that are brilliant, and I’ll focus on a handful of comedy double features over the next couple of weeks. To start with I thought I’d point out two of the funniest streaming on Amazon right now. I probably don’t have to tell you to watch The Hangover streaming on Netflix as you’ve probably seen that one. If you haven’t you really should. These are two more that are equally as funny but somewhat lesser known.

Kingpin is the ultimate bowling movie. And it is as hilarious as it is raunchy. It’s the story of a young up and coming bowling protégé (Woody Harrelson) in the 1970’s with a promising career ahead of him…that is until he meets The Big Ern (played wickedly by Bill Murray) and things go horribly and hysterically wrong. It was created by the Farley Brothers who also brought us the landmark comedy Something About Mary. It’s one of their best films and a must see. Kingpin is also available to stream on Netflix.

The Hollywood Shuffle is one of the smartest, funniest satires I’ve ever seen. Made in 1987, the film holds up great. Robert Townsend (who also co-wrote, directed, and produced the film) plays the lead and four other parts as his main character, a young actor trying to break into movies navigates and lampoons the absurdities of typecasting in Hollywood. Ahead of its time when it was released and an absolute classic. I highly recommend it.