I think about Shakespeare, where it was said he turned in his plays with hardly any blot in them. I somehow do not believe that. I think he revised endlessly, and then made a new clean copy to turn in. And that if other playwrights turn in plays with blots in them, they are likely lazy with rewriting and stingy with paper. I do believe in rewriting and revising. Getting to the "white heat" is about refining the ore until it cannot be refined anymore. White heat could also refer to the inspiration that leads you to just write your first draft without self-criticism, but you must still look back, and you must revise. Even Dickinson's prose is refined.

Then again, it may say more about me than about how these writers actually worked. I am not that kind of person to revise what I have written. I usually write, and leave the first draft unchanged. But, maybe the ideal I've made of prior writers is what I'm striving toward, that after I obtain the ores--the important step--I must edit and edit until it shines with the white heat.

Kubrick probably posited this idea too. He might have broken down the screenplays to their essential elements reflecting him, then he filmed many takes, then he edits for years until the movie repudiates the forge.