I know a lot of trade writers look down on work-for-hire,...

I know a lot of trade writers look down on work-for-hire, but I owe it an immeasurable debt, if only for one thing it taught me about myself: My thinking is very often overcomplicated at first. I learned that from my readers' theater scripts editor, who has a gift for paring ideas down so that they're perfectly suited to format. I'd come up with some idea, and he'd tweak it by saying, "Yeah, but that's too complicated. Why don't you just have so-and-so happen, big climax, show the characters ...