Back to the Plan
July 17, 2002
7:28 a.m.
I had planned to work on my novel when I returned from vacation, but instead I've spent the last two mornings rewriting a short story. This is not bad news, actually (though it's not necessarily good news either). What's that, you say? Get to the freaking point? Oh. Ok. Heinlein said not to rewrite unless it's to editorial direction, and one of the stories that John Bodin and I wrote was returned with strong praise and a complaint or two that this editor said we had to address. So I've been addressing it. It's on its way to John this morning. Now back to my planned work.   Lisa and I went to see Minority Report last night. Overall, I enjoyed it and thought it was intriguing. That said, I left the theater thinking it could have been better--a lot better. I've not read the Phil Dick story that the movie is based on, and perhaps I should. But I thought the movie's plot was a little sparse in places. Mostly, though I thought the thing was bloated. It runs something around two and a half hours, and on the way home Lisa and I picked out two scenes that could have been trimmed dramatically without harming the story at all, and I'm sure there are more...we just stopped picking on it at that point. Another good example of this was Spielberg's re-release of ET. We went to see it, and immediately noted the scenes that had been added. Afterward, Lisa, Brigid and I all talked about it and agreed that there really wasn't anything valuable in the newer scenes, and in fact we preferred the movie in its original form. That leads me to think about editing. Less words are more, and all that. Who was it that said he would have written a shorter letter, but that he didn't have the time? I'm out of time this morning, and gotta run. Maybe I'll finish this thought tomorrow. Or, maybe not. [grin]  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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