Rewrite. Rewrite. Rewrite.

That’s scriptwriting. We all know.

But is it natural to rewrite everything in life?

Essays. Letters.

Of course.

Emails, blogs and even texts messages? Does it matter that they’re not the polished pieces of art you want them to be?

Yes.

I spend hours refining emails. Not the short ones. Although it does take a while to get it right. Does it sound right? Do I sound like an arse? Did I get my point across. Etc. But does it really matter? Emails aren’t meant to be like essays. They’re not being marked. And if i offend someone it wasn't my intention. But as long as we stay emailing then that’s a good sign.

Blogs?

I spend hours perfecting the perfect blog entry, which goes against the whole point. Blogs are meant to be natural and spontaneous. Nope. Not my blog. For a day or so after I’ll keep re-reading a particular entry to make sure its exactly what I wanted to say and if I say it right. Fair enough. I think. I don’t want people to get the wrong message and I certainly don’t want to sound like a patronising arse.

But then that leads into going over another, then another and then the whole lot. This is a problem. So I apologise to subscribers, if any if you have hundreds of emails about my blog updates when in truths there’s probably only two new entries.

But texts messages?

Is this whole rewrite business getting a little out of hand?

Yes.

I will spend quite an unnatural amount of time perfecting the perfect and most suitable response to a text message. ‘Is it too much?’, ‘Too little?’, ‘No that doesn’t sound right’, ‘I don’t think he’ll get the joke.’ etc.

So that explains my delayed reply. Even a day or so after.

Also with email and text message replies; I have to feel like its time to reply. It needs to feel right to me. Its weird. And a little compulsive. You can’t force these masterpieces.

With art it should be natural.

Has this entry got out of hand yet? Yes. And much earlier. But I think the thing I’m trying to say is ‘Don’t censor yourself.’ In your writing, scripts, emails, blogs or whatever. If you do then your really living out a persona and hiding your real self.

A nice piece of advice, I forget who said it. But it goes something like this:

‘Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.’ -Cyril Connolly

This wasn’t the one I was thinking of but it pretty much says the same thing. And I’m sure you can draw the difference between personal replies and scripts.