Rewriting for this guy. If I've made it to that point -- means I've finished the first draft! Yes! First drafts stress me out at times -- if things are not flowing like I think they should I tend to get stuck. But I'm working on that -- helooo cork-board! I bet there are those that love the first draft. With a great idea folks can breeze through and finish it quickly. I would imagine the rewrites trip them up. But for me... rewrites. Means I'm one step closer to completion!

I used to think it was the first draft that I liked more. However, I've discovered the joy of rewriting. I seriously love to cut dialogue and action lines. It means the story is getting tighter. And it's all about telling the best possible story! Go into it, right?

I like the first one or two rewrites the best. All the problems from the first draft are clear, and they seem so fixable. It's the rewrites after that where stuff starts to get murky and frustrating (and where my writers group is all that stands between me and a loaded .38).

Rewriting, but I'll say one thing in favor of the 1st draft. This is where, if you're lucky, you get to experience the joy of flow, where words just erupt onto the page. OTOH, rewriting is a process of refinement or repair, almost engineering, like trying to fix a watch. The Japanese have a word for it: Kaizen.

Rewriting, by far. Or at least, polishing a scene until it sings. The rewriting that involves plot restructuring and killing your darlings is less fun.

@Adam: And let's not forget gutting forty pages in one fell strike of the delete key. Maybe that was just me. But boy did it hurt! Ouch!

I recently discovered the love for rewriting by working on another person's script. A writing partner had an old script he was burnt out on, all the pieces were there, it just needed some heart and humor. So creating that for the set pieces and punching up the dialogue has breathed life back into an old script. So far it's going amazing, and if anything I'm getting great experience in script doctoring someone else's baby.

First drafts are excruciating to me, so I'm a rewriter all the way. I come from a loooong line of engineers, so as pliny the elder indicated, that may be why.

Polishing, that's where the pleasure is. You finally got the whole thing, now you're making sure it sings, has life, a beating heart. In every creative medium, this is the most delicious phase. The final edit and polish.

It's neck and neck, but I have to say the chopping, honing and polishing of rewriting edges out the excitement of getting a new story out in the first draft. My absolute favorite thing is to take a red pen to my paper script and start marking it up.

Am I the only one that likes writing better? I'm new to the screenwriting world and only dove into it earlier this year but I've had a lot more fun turning my ideas into pages then rewriting what I already have.