It depends. I wrote half a dozen books while procrastinating over a single book for about 15 years. As it turned out, the procrastination was well worth it. Instead of trying to push the ideas down someone's throat, I was able to use a lot of misdirection, and as a result, the reader changes their mind without any force on my part.
I was just listening to an interview with Alan Alda, and he was talking about how, as an actor, he doesn't just have lines. He responds to lines instead. I think this idea might be clear, but I'm just elaborating anyway.
He mentioned how the other actor says something, and then his tone and his behaviour change. Though he is repeating the same lines he has learned, they are completely different. I think this is true for writing as well. Often, the writing is done in a vacuum.
We need to write something, and so we do, but then it lacks the power that you get from responding to something. Therefore, it becomes more difficult to get those words on paper. It is somehow starved of the oxygen that you get from responding to somebody else.
Sometimes you can respond to something you've read, but most of the time, just responding to a person's query is probably the most powerful tool of all.
I just didn't realise it applied to actors as well.
It depends. I wrote half a dozen books while procrastinating over a single book for about 15 years. As it turned out, the procrastination was well worth it. Instead of trying to push the ideas down someone's throat, I was able to use a lot of misdirection, and as a result, the reader changes their mind without any force on my part.
interesting point sean!
I was just listening to an interview with Alan Alda, and he was talking about how, as an actor, he doesn't just have lines. He responds to lines instead. I think this idea might be clear, but I'm just elaborating anyway.
He mentioned how the other actor says something, and then his tone and his behaviour change. Though he is repeating the same lines he has learned, they are completely different. I think this is true for writing as well. Often, the writing is done in a vacuum.
We need to write something, and so we do, but then it lacks the power that you get from responding to something. Therefore, it becomes more difficult to get those words on paper. It is somehow starved of the oxygen that you get from responding to somebody else.
Sometimes you can respond to something you've read, but most of the time, just responding to a person's query is probably the most powerful tool of all.
I just didn't realise it applied to actors as well.