One of the things an actor wishes for on any audition are notes.
You make your plan, you do your homework and walk in the door with an idea of what you want and how to go get it in a particular scene. But the director, the powers that be may not agree with those decisions.
At that point two things can happen. They either say, “We will be in touch.” or something like it or they give you notes.
As an actor you want the notes. In your head you are thinking, “For goodness sake please let me take a shot at giving you the interpretation you are looking for rather than just kicking me out the door.”
Of course the awesome reaction would be everyone in the room jumping on their chairs shouting, “That is it! That is exactly who we want to cast.”
In the past couple of years more than one person in the industry has remarked on my openness to changes in my work. I am always open to improvement but I will absolutely stand up for things I believe in. At the same time, I am willing to try a change to see if it makes everything work better.
I guess it is the actor in me. Endlessly adaptable to playing comedy, tragedy, historical, contemporary, futuristic while cutting my hair, wearing a wig, becoming blonde, brunette, red head, or bald. Walking with a limp, wearing prosthetics, using an accent, or any of the other things actors are asked to do in their line of work.
Rewriting a scene is easy compared to making the world look like it is freezing when it is 110 in the shade or vis versa. I just have to imagine it!
In the course of this book, which is now a story about a girl dealing with the complete upheaval of her life after her parents die in a car accident and she is sent to live with a distant relative she never knew existed, there have been many changes. I have changed protagonists–both sex and location–male to female, next door to in the house. I have added in and removed a subplot with treasure hunters, and one with burglers. I have made the boy mean, the girl mean, I have made them sullen and accepting and all of the above at the same time.
What I have not done is give up. I have not given up. I have not refused change and I have always listened to the story my characters were trying to get me to tell.
I am now proud of my work and able to let go a bit and move on to the next one while hoping that this one will find a home in publishing.
When I taught creative writing I always said to my students, “You don’t have to agree with the changes I suggest. You do have to try them.”
Be open to the changes.
Therein beauty lies.
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