When I was in college I would hate to get my essays and term papers back with red ink marked all over it. It was like the professor and gutted my very thoughts and intentions as opposed to my typos and bad grammar. And what made it worse was when there was red ink not spilled over typos and bad grammar, but over the very idea that I was trying to convey, or a smart quip that wasn't "appropriate" for the material. I probably got away with quippy material maybe once or twice, and what I mean by that is that I got an A instead of a B.
But as I grow older and I find myself in charge of my own material, I have come to embrace the red ink pen. I won't use any other color when proofing and editing my scripts and prose. The redder the ink the better. I actually like to cut material down and remove unnecessary dialog or description. I like getting a script from 68 to 63 pages (63 has become my magic number for spec scripts for some reason). More importantly, editing for me is FUN. It means I'm finished with all the hard work and now I'm making my writing BETTER.
The red pen has become my friend, even though it was never really my enemy.
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