Wow, he's like Mozart and never uses an eraser!

shnoods | March 24, 17:35 CET

The differences with the final are subtle (seems like it was borne almost fully-formed, unless there was a lot of trial and error in his head before he put it down to paper), but the final version of the lyrics is better.

SpendTheNightAlone | March 24, 19:56 CET

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a couple other pages featuring scratchings-out, mistakes, etc. and this was the version he wrote when he felt like he had it all down in his head.

Or the man is perfect and I hate him for that :p

sumogrip | March 24, 20:48 CET

I think you may have to hate him, Jobo, because things are leaning a bit more toward the "perfect" end of the spectrum.

"Written By" interviewed Joss once, and in the write-up said:



I don't know that the page we see was necessarily the first written version of the song, but if his first drafts are also final drafts, I think it well could be.

Mercenary | March 24, 21:29 CET

He commented on that with the panel with JJ Abrams and JJ groaned because of it. Joss aims to write in the final form. I'm not sure if that stuff is applicable to songs though.

Jaymii | March 24, 21:44 CET

Oh, the things in his head! I can't even imagine what half-formed ideas might be in there, not even on a clipboard yet...

Thanks to both Titan and Whedonesque for the contest, no matter who wins. (Though of course I will ;)

cabri | March 24, 21:56 CET

I'm not sure if “I need to know who that guy is, so I need the name, and it can kill me. I’ve got this time blocked out to write, and I can’t just say Mr. X. It’s really debilitating.”
is totally true, since Joss had changed name for characters (Glory/Eve) and named them in non-gender ways (Robin) to just later chose what would be the character's sex.

Brasilian Chaos Man | March 25, 20:55 CET

But to be fair, changing the name could just mean he later had a change of heart, and at the time of choosing the original name it seemed like the perfect one.

And I think Robin was just an experiment in being completely gender neutral with casting, rather than a situation where Joss couldn't make up his mind about male or female. But this is just how I interpreted his comments on the matter, obviously others may see it differently.

sumogrip | March 25, 21:48 CET

"Written By" interviewed Joss once, and in the write-up said:

Yeah he said the same thing in his "Write Environment" interview (well worth getting the DVD BTW). Apparently he goes over and over lines of dialogue in his head amending them as he goes then writes them down when he's happy with them (so plenty of "drafts" just not on paper).

If that were me i'd be terrified the phone would go or some sod from Porlock would turn up and drive the lines away but - to say the least - where Joss is concerned it seems to be working (maybe he just doesn't answer the door when he's writing ;).

Saje | March 26, 01:08 CET

Of course, Porlock is really long drive from West LA, so maybe he's just not worried about it.

jcs | March 26, 03:44 CET

Maybe he should name all of his characters "Pat" for added flexibility.

SpendTheNightAlone | March 31, 21:48 CET