Evaluating your own work and fixing it is REALLY hard. You’ll see things in the work of others that you will have a very hard time seeing in your own work. Your brain will be desperate to convince you that the problems in your work aren’t problems at all. You’ll often come away having no idea whether what you’ve done is good or not.

Why? A whole bunch of reasons but it is all tied into the fact that you are too close to your work. You immerse yourself in it, you give it your all and then you find it harder to see the larger view. And most of all, your brain goes into resistance mode. You might not even be that type of person but your brain will still try to protect you and the work you have done and that can make you blind to things that need fixing.

So what do you do? The first thing is to try to bring in someone else to edit and give notes. But if you can’t do that, if you really have to edit on your own, try to get some distance and then split the process into very separate tasks:

Step 1 – make notes. Do NOT attempt to fix anything. Do not even consider fixing anything. You NEVER have to fix any of this stuff. The only goal is to make notes – what doesn’t work, what needs clarification, tightening, amending. Simple quick notes. The trick here is that if you completely disassociate this from the act of having to fix these things, you’ll be more honest. Your brain will not go into resistance mode quite so much and so it’s like evaluating the work of someone else.

The moment you try to fix something in this stage, your brain will go into lockdown and try to protect you from the hard work of rewrites or re-editing. Don’t do it – you’re only making notes and, when that stage is done, you’re going to let it sit so you don’t have to worry about actually fixing anything. Just make those notes.

Step 2 – Let it settle. Give it some time.

Step 3 – Evaluate the notes and make plans to address them. Again, do NOT go in and do the fixes here. This is a PLANNING stage. Effectively it’s like giving someone suggestions: how about you do it this way instead? Like the first stage, if you get stuck into the work directly your brain will resist and try to save you work by convincing you some things are okay or trying to give you easy yet half-baked solves. You’re just jotting down some plans. You don’t need to consider ever carrying them out.

Step 4 – You’ve got your plans now. You know exactly what you’re doing, right? Hey, the hard work is over. All you have to do now is stick to the plans and do what your past self told you to do. It will take a bit of time but it’s just in the doing now. So work your way through your fixes, follow your plans and implement them as best you can.

Step 5 – Enjoy your good work. You did it.

I find it is still always helpful to get an outside view but being able to have some sense of your own work is a crucial skill. So split it up into tasks and it gives you the best chance of doing a great edit without your brain ruining things by trying to protect you.

Some of us give feedback regularly as part of our jobs. I’ve done this as a director and, more recently, a script editor and I also consult on projects quite regularly and much of that involves highlighting problems or flaws in a concept.

Or, as I prefer to think of it, identifying the areas where we can make that project even stronger and build on the best ideas contained within it.

I’m effectively saying the same thing there but one comes with a positivity that the other doesn’t have. Because I have also been on the other side of feedback, I can tell you with certainty that the positivity matters. When you’re reviewing somebody’s scene, when you’re reading through their script or trying to break down their concept, you’ve been given a piece of work that comes from within that person. It’s personal. It is as personal as it gets.

Feedback needs to be useful and constructive. It needs to be honest but there is a very fine line between honesty and cruelty and I actually haven’t seen an instance in my entire career where that cruelty is warranted, as much as some people might think it’s fine on X-Factor or whatever. Honest feedback can be delivered positively and sensitively. It’s not really about sugar coating or just saying nice things for the sake of it. It’s actually about seeing those good things, which is just as important to the process as seeing problems or negatives. If you don’t have a good sense of the strengths, how can you make it even stronger?

So look for the strengths. That will help guide your feedback and, more than that, it will allow you to deliver that feedback in a positive way. Because as much as you may think it’s just your job or it’s business or whatever, when you are in a creative field and looking at works from creative people, it IS personal.

Whether you’re writing on your own project or for someone else, you will no doubt have a script editor. A script editor should be your greatest ally as a writer. I know it seems convenient that someone who is script editing would want you to think about how awesome script editors are (disclosure: I’m currently story and script editing a meaty 52-episode series) but I’m coming at this more from the perspective of a writer, having just completed the first scripts for Mooshku’s Millie and Mr. Fluff. I wouldn’t dream of writing a script and not having my editor, Hilary, have input. We need that external view, no matter how good our writing may be or even if we edit scripts too. Good script editors are essential.

This is the most important thing to keep in mind when you’re a writer working with an editor: your script editor exists to make your work look even better.

Your script editor maintains the distance and objectivity that you can lose when you get buried in a story. Your script editor is your advisor, your sounding board, your friend.

The best thing about a script editor is that they are usually (not always, but usually) untainted by any other part of the process. Think about it – the producer needs volume, an easy production and easy sales with minimal explanation. The director wants an episode that’s easy to make and can allow for performances. A distributor wants sales and license deals. Almost everyone on a production has a bunch of concerns that aren’t always about telling the best story.

A script editor, on the other hand, exists to make the scripts better. That’s it. So ideally the bond of trust between you as a writer and your editor should be unshakable.

If it is, here is what a good script editor will do for you:

They will make sure you are telling your story in the strongest way possible.
They will keep an eye on your flow, if you’ve lost sight of anything obvious.
They will listen to your language, make sure it’s correct.
They will look for the pitfalls, those pitfalls that you are better removing or patching before others spot them.
They will be there to nudge, to suggest and even just to talk things through in order to help you overcome any difficulties.

So value a good script editor, trust them and try your absolute best to make that relationship work for you. Try to find the right editor, one you favour and can recommend (I can recommend me and it’s a service we offer at Mooshku but I would also wholeheartedly recommend Hilary who made me a far better writer – get in touch if you’d like details). One you consider your best ally. Because really, out of everyone on a production, the script editor is on your side.