How to edit

First of all, it is impossible to edit for more than five or six hours a day.

You need to find a routine. For example, find one or two other things to do a day. Recently I have been going to job interviews to pass the time. I also rent three movies a week. (There is a three for the price of two deal at 20/20 video in Burbank.) I also go out of my way to make friends with people I don’t know.

In the morning, I make coffee. Sometimes I buy it, so I have somewhere to go. When I come back I check my mail. I am like a kid at camp with mail. In the late afternoon I go running. In between there are nearly five hours of productive time to be had.

If you don’t have patience you don’t have anything.

What you have to do is make friends with your movie, with the characters, the settings, the scenes. You will need these friends to finish the damn thing. If you don’t have anyone to hang out with it will be easier to make friends with your movie. If possible, move to a place where you know no one and will live alone.

You will have to confront yourself. Now. How to edit a life. First, look back. Second, remember the sensations. Finally, rewrite.

Rewriting as you edit your movie is the only way to learn something from your movie. Let your new friend, your movie, tell you where it will go. It knows best. If you trust it, maybe it will lead you somewhere.

A note of warning: you may be inclined to worry about what you originally intended. I originally intended for my life to be different from what it is. But that is no way to live. Not when you are alive each day and able to know who you are.

Rewrite rewrite rewrite. You have to own the movie of your life, if that’s the direction you are going to go.

The other trick I know is, edit the sound first. The stuff that sounds right will make anything look good. Or, to put it another way, do whatever works.