"There’s not a writer I know about or have interviewed who doesn’t prefer rewriting and editing to writing." I've heard you say this on the blog before. I am definitely part of the minority here. At least at this point in my short screenwriting career, I prefer the writing part. Rewriting is way scarier! Taking a first draft and turning it into something more is a very daunting task. And it's a task that means you're really doing this. You're really making an attempt at it. I'm not afraid of it, but it absolutely is scarier than just plowing thorugh a first draft. I also feel like the fear of failure is magnified when rewriting.

I have a nasty habit of rewriting while I write the first draft. I spend way too much time "going back" and fixing when I should just get the whole thing on paper. Yeah, I've added it to my writing goals for next year: #6 Stop re-writing yourself out of a finished script!

"There’s not a writer I know about or have interviewed who doesn’t prefer rewriting and editing to writing." You need to get out more. The majority of writers I know (and I include myself in this category) greatly prefer the creative rush of the initial writing and find rewriting a tedious, demanding hell with payback far out of balance with the amount of effort put into it. Yes, rewriting is essential--but it is not fun.

Wolf, of course every writer is different and I'm guilty of some hyperbole to drive home the fundamental point about the importance of finishing a first draft because that problem afflicts so many - especially - aspiring or first-time writers. For them, I think it's safe to say it's far better to have made it past the first draft hurdle and have something on paper to work with than not. Rewriting can be difficult, I grant you, but let me ask you this: How about editing? Would you agree that editing is more fun than writing?

Marc, please see my response to Wolf in which I acknowledge a certain amount of hyperbole in an attempt to speak to that very large group of writers who get hung up on first drafts. I guess, too, I'm speaking from the perspective of my own approach and those of most of the working writers I know who crack the story in prep, so the first draft is generally a strong representation of what the final story will look like. Long perhaps and needing some fair about of editing, but not in most cases a substantial rewrite. Hope that provides some clarity re my original remarks. I will update the OP as well.

I had no problem with what the OP stated, I would actually probably agree with it. But for me, at this point, I like the writing part better. This past year I wrote my first screenplay and did a little rewriting on it, then I wrote another script and did a whole lot of rewriting on it. That second script I had done waaaaaay more prep on and made the draft a lot easier. But still had to do a Rewrite because the story needed some bigger changes. It could have maybe worked the original way but the newer way was far better. On one of my next projects I've actually decided to leave out too much prep. I'm writing a more real-life, character driven story and I want to write it by allowing my characters to take me where they want to go. I have general ideas in my head of what I want, but thats it. Hopefully it works!

I think I probably do prefer the writing to the rewriting/ editing, but that doesn't take away from the main lesson here - get the damn thing finished, because you don't know what you've got until it's all down on paper. _Then_ you can start deciding what works and what doesn't. Rewriting before you have a finished script is often a wasted effort, because you may be polishing a scene you later realise isn't necessary, etc etc... The best piece of writing advice I ever heard - and I'm sure someone here will know who said it, because I've forgotten - is "Don't get it right, get it written".

I prefer finishing the script to not finishing the script. And I guess that was the point of the post too. The creative rush and free spirit of the writing is nice but they rarely last all the way through from fade in to fade out. If they do, fine. But if, and when, they don´t, just keep going and fix it later. Because I think only later, after finishing the first draft, you can see the whole picture more like a viewer and less like a writer. And for me that´s the point.