By mediachic
An old saying has some truth, at least when it comes to the first draft: You think long, you think wrong.
The words are already in you. Drawing it out takes some finesse, some diligence, but mostly it takes sitting in a chair and typing. Or, when times get hard and the fingers do not know which letter comes next, to conceptualize, the words sometimes need that old-school pen-and-paper approach. Sometimes, in the hardest, most convoluted stories, that mind-bubble works. What is the central theme, what’s connected to it. Three or four bubbles? That’s a story—and usually a good one.
A lot of times, you got it right the first time, and then you just had to go back and hack at it and whip it into something unrecognizable, something that became a monster. Don’t do that!
Pro tip: Even in this fully computerized age, a 3×5 card, a 5×7, or a storyboard—whatever it takes—can still be your best friend. Keep your writing on the wall, or on the laptop, or the hard drive, and always save your drafts. Don’t overthink it.
