Script Writing Tip--sometimes you just have to let it sit for a while

Yesterday I wrote about writing and rewriting, and I decided to follow my orders of "Go Write!"  Today I picked up my very first script, dusted it off and decided to start polishing.  

After having worked on this script for a solid year, and then sporadically through another two years it has now been almost six months since I even looked at this script.  But that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it.  This is a really important point.  

I've found that after working exclusively on a project there comes a time when there's not much more I can do, and then I just have to put it aside for a while.  I imagine it's a lot like winemaking.  A good vintage must sit and cure for some time.  A story sometimes has to sit and mature in a corner of the mind where it is not constantly being judged or manipulated.  During this time, we are processing our ideas, our characters' personalities are solidifying, and their intentions are crystallizing.  I suspect that with practice and increased skill, this phase of story cohesion, or "maturation" occurs within a much shortened period of time.  However, I do not believe that it ever becomes obsolete. 

Unlike winemaking, though, a writer has the opportunity to continue to tweak the story after this period, and to rewrite and edit with regards to the direction in which the story has gone.

So today I opened up my laptop and started clicking away.  An idea that has long been looming in my mind (which by now has become essential to the story) found it's place and pace perfectly within the story.  As if that wasn't thrilling enough, I happened to have been invited to accompany a friend to a meeting at a production company, and so I clicked away, back into my very first script, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of deals and meetings at an epic production company.  Now, for me, that was epic in and of itself.