Finding the Arrow

I have always enjoyed listening to Elvis Mitchell's "The Treatment" on NPR, and now that it's available as a podcast, I never miss it. He interviews filmmakers (directors, writers) as well as actors and has in-depth & intelligent conversations with them about their work, their influences, their processes. It's especially advantageous to download the podcasts rather than listen live on the radio, because then I can wait until I see a film before listening, which makes the experience that much richer.

Long intro to just say that on the way to work, I listened to Mitchell interview Noah Baumbach, the writer/director of "The Squid & The Whale." He said a lot of interesting things, but one particularly struck me. In describing what it's like to write a first draft of a screenplay and then shape it into a cohesive film, he said that it's like shooting an arrow into the forest, and then going deep inside the woods to look for it.

Very much like any kind of writing, I think, and very relevant to crafting a short story from a mass of material. I like that analogy - when I'm finalizing a draft, I'm looking for that arrow, that one precise thing that is the story, amid all the clutter of words and ideas.

As another quote said, "Write profusely. Edit severely."