The first cut is the hardest

I’ve always found the editing process somewhat painful. But it is a necessary evil.

Indeed, some parts are almost fun – or should I say, they make you happier with the play: Removing typographical errors, dealing with continuity errors…

But as yet, I have never written play that is the right length when I’ve finished. Every one has been a little too long. In the case of Denim, it was about 10 pages over…

You have to go over the entire script and see what you should and what you could lose to bring the play back to the right length.

The easiest way for me to reduce the length is to revisit the stage directions in the play. I know that I put too much detail into them. But it focuses my mind during the writing process of what I want to achieve in that scene.

In the first edit, these are things that can be removed quite easily. Each and every stage direction has to be questioned for validity. You have to ask yourself, ‘do I really need to tell the actor that?’, ‘am I doing the director’s job?’. If the answer is ‘yes’, the direction has to be cut.

Thankfully, I’ve got out of the habit of including wrylies, so I don’t have to cut them.

But this play is by far the most painful to edit. First, it’s far too long (By about 25 + pages!). Second, I am finding it difficult to summon the courage to make cuts…

Why? Remember that this play is a collaboration. I’m quite happy to hack and slash my scenes, but when I come to look over my co-writers work, I feel myself holding the mouse back and fearing the delete key.

This collaboration has been on of the most exciting writing projects I have undertaken. And although this may sound juvenile, I don’t want to upset him by cutting lines that they love… I know how hard it is for me to cut my own dialogue – but I know the reason for cutting it… And time doesn’t allow me the luxury of explaining every single cut I make.

So, I’ve made my first pass over the script and have passed it back. So far his reaction to what I have done has been fine… I hope that he’s as brutal with my scenes as I have been with his – else I’m going to feel like a mercenary git!

But I know why this script is too long! This is the first play that I have written without some form of Scenario. This play is free-formed – and it has produced a product that will keep the audience engaged for the duration. But the result is that we have taken the plot where we wanted at that time, but paid no heed to the length.

We’ll get it there though. It’s not going to be easy and emotions are bound to rise at some point… But the exciting thing is that we’re already talking about writing another play. This time, I think we’ll put in place a few ground rules to make our lives a little easier at the edit stage.