First Draft and Rewrites

So my first draft is finished and I'm proud of the work I've done. A first draft is never a miracle one hit wonder, I must rewrite and revise. Through rewriting, a story gets its charm. As much as I'd like to believe that writing a perfect first draft is possible, I must accept that it is not. I'm not a Mozart of story telling nor am I even quite good at English to begin with. Apparently Amaedus lies about Mozart writing "perfect first drafts" and that he in fact made many changes... so this gives me hope.

So there are rewrites. Rewriting allows an average man like myself to put work where pure talent lacks. In any field, of any form. Example has shown that working hard can put you ahead of those who are naturally more able (Gattaca, anyone?) Athletes can overcome each other by cutting back on snacks and fast food- which always made me wonder, why are so many Olympic Athletes sponsored in McDonald's commercials?

Then there is time. Can I rewrite 90 pages in two weeks? Of course I can, I can do anything I set my mind too. Will I have enough time to rewrite 90 pages in two weeks? Well that's a question I can't quite answer. Of course I have the time, but my personality, my attitude, all determine the time I put towards rewriting a feature length screenplay.

I need time to sleep, time to eat, time to be outside, underwater, any place besides being in front of a computer screen. Do you feel like that sometimes? I do. Maybe it's a neuro-imbalance because there are times when I am in the zone and can work for hours without a problem, I even enjoy it! Then there are other times when I can't even open the file to start working in. Half the battle is starting it and opening up the file, so maybe I should.

Another one of my problems I face this term is my Film and Video Senior Project. I may not have spent everyday working on my feature length script, but I do spend at least a little bit of time each day screenwriting for something. I've been working very hard to rewrite my senior project script. In the past seven weeks I've rewritten it nearly three times from scratch. I must lock that script down as soon as possible because I am filming it during winter break.

I also find that it is hard for me to work on more than one story at a time. The days I work on my Film and Video Script are not the days when I usually work on my Feature Length Screenplay. It's like I enter a certain mindset for one story and If i try to switch to the other one right away, It's hard to imagine the other story when the previous one was so fresh in my mind.

I'll try to put in more of an effort on both scripts. My goal is to lock the short script first so focus better on the other, much longer one.