Still Life with Red Pen

I'm asking myself a few questions today. One of which is... when is it too early to revise? I feel a little like I'm trying to perfect Act I, so that the rest of the play will "write itself." But has that...ever...happened? My usual modus operendi is to bang out a draft as quickly as something comes to me that doesn't stop itself about 20 pages in. Then go back and make it all work with a little red pen and a quart of whiskey and some friendly neighborhood readers.

Now, in an effort to work things more smoothly, I'm already re-working things. And I've got about 48 pages and barely anything in Act II, let alone III. (I'll have to do some blogging on the three-act structure and why I insist on it past the point of all logic and commerical reason.)

On the other hand, maybe the haphazard "race to the finish line" style wasn't the best thing for some older scripts, and I wound up putting band-aids on structurally broken legs.

I think I said something else was on my mind...which is...what am I doing working this day job? I read this New Yorker article about a schlemp minister in a Hawaiian T-Shirt that is able to rent out the Houston Astrodome. Because let's face it...the man ain't lazy. Which I can be. I don't work hard enough at just submitting these scripts. Isn't that half the battle.

By the by, George Hunka of Superfluities drove by and said hi, here. He's a good read, and a fine fellow. I'll be checking up on his stuff. Revise, Revise, Revise.