Why You Need to "Kill Your Darlings" It's time to shape that raw inspiration. ; LEARN MORE with our online filmmaking course. “You need to let go of the bits of your writing you are holding onto selfishly. Those words, side plots, characters or turns of phrase that you personally love but, if you are being truthful, don’t really advance your story in any way.” One of the best bits of writing advice I ever heard found its way to me in the editing suite of a reality TV pilot presentation. The show was about women working on Capitol Hill. I was an unpaid intern working at the production company that was producing the pilot presentation, which they then planned to take to networks to try to sell the concept and turn it into a TV show. The presentation was to be about 10 – 15 minutes. The producer had offered me a chance to sit in on the editing process, to which I’d eagerly and immediately told her, “Yes.” Some people look back on internships with malaise, because often, you work long hours and you are not paid. These things are true, and I won’t deny that some internships are grueling. I happened to never find myself in one that was grueling, and in retrospect, I can see that I was a good intern, because I knew that although I wasn’t being paid, I was being afforded access to spaces that I had no real business being in,...
Published By: Lights Film School Blog - Tuesday, 11 September, 2018