It’ll all come together in the edit…

I’ve nearly finished my current work-in-progress! As with any project, it only takes 10% of the time to do 90% of the work. But my co-writer noted that there may be a problem with length.

With the final two scenes to go, the manuscript stands at 130 pages! So it’s official, it’s not that there may be a problem with length, there is a problem.

If you’re using the right formatting in creating your manuscript, each page roughly translates to 60 secs – so this one is already running at 2 hours 10 minutes without the final two scenes! For a play to be commercially viable, it’s recommended that the first act runs in 55 mins and the second in 50. Indeed, that was our goal. But this play has run away with us; the themes it has thrown up are greater than either of us imagined.

Now if I was sensible, I would finish of the writing process and worry about the length later. But who ever suggested that I am sensible? I have spent a couple of nights reviewing the manuscript to see where cuts can be made.

It’s a painful process. First it highlights the typos and continuity errors you have overlooked in the writing process – then you become passionate about the dialogue you have written: You have inserted those lines for a reason – to remove them is like dismissing your own children.

But it has to be done. You have to develop a thick skin and question every word, every line and every direction.

But it was the last of these that made me realise, this is the time to be sensible for once in my life. I have Rambled before about stage directions in a manuscript – and I realised that I was not following my own advice. There were more than a few tautological directions in there, plus others that should be left to a director to determine for themselves. Plus, when I was reading them, I started to question the cast size.

For once I realised that if I started making edits now, there was a definite chance that I could remove the passion from the play – along with removing characters that could well develop in the last two scenes to enable the play to consolidate.

So the play has been saved as a separate file. I’ve locked it. It’s now time to get the thing finished. It’s time to let the story takes its path and finish where it needs to.

The edits can come later – they have to be driven by the conclusion, not by my interpretations of its commercial viability.

The only trouble is, I now have to follow my own advice. So if anyone knows of any online courses about self-discipline…