Start Fast and Edit Slow

When I write, I tend to write fast. That's always great...at first. But then after that it's important to slow down. Really slow down. So Jason put the task in front of me and I wrote him one episode every day for five days. It was the beginnings of an idea but it felt so ready for the page, especially after seeing Jason's previous work. I felt like I knew his style and what he'd be drawn to.

Once Jason approved the ideas we had to make some changes. Episode five was nowhere near what he wanted. That was a problem. But, one that was easily solvable when you got right down to it. Considering the fact that the end of the series needs to be a gut-punch, all I had to do was think about how to rearrange the "punch" a little bit. After the second try we were on to something.

And then the editing began.... and continued.... and continued.

One thing to remember is that when we first started this project, the only thing we had was the courtroom itself. That meant lawyers, jury, witnesses. That's it. Everything would be testimony. And that can be pretty hard to keep compelling. I'd like to think that I'm a decent writer but I was nervous that we might not be terribly interesting if we only had the courtroom.

That was when we took the tour. Jason enlisted our now co-producer, Julia Borkowski to get us access to the courthouse. It was during this visit that we realized the wealth of spaces it had to offer. Now that it was a historical society, the various rooms had been converted into things like a schoolhouse, mortuary, and bedroom. These were all amazing locations that seemingly existed in different buildings!

Suddenly, our testimony became flashbacks, our "tell" became "show" in all the best ways. But that meant diving back into the scripts and doing full revamps of all five. But Jason and I put our heads together and really thought about what we had at our fingertips. Nothing better than a wealth of locations.