In #2 in my Bite the Rewrite series, I’m asking for some dogged forensic work.
So are your scenes working hard enough? First draft, probably not. Sometimes you’re so deep in the playwriting forrest you are unable to identify anything specific about the trees. That’s when the old PPP can help. Plot. Psychology. Premise. This triumphant roughly aligns to ‘outer journey’, ‘inner journey’ and ‘meta journey’.
Look at your first draft scenes. Without any doubt, there will be scenes there that are flabby. There may be scenes that are missing. There may be scenes that are too short, too long, too rambling, too tight-lipped. There may be great screeds of scenes where nothing happens, or they grow tangential like some sort of insane octopus reaching into the wrong story or the action zooms past the emotional world of the characters leaving the audience cold.
Wh’cha gonna do? Let’s step back, do something about that.
Your task here is to go through your script, scene by scene. You’re going to interrogate them until they squeal and beg for mercy.
P is for Plot.
Read the first scene. Ask yourself: does the scene contain an essential plot point (without which the scenes after it will make no sense)? That is to say, ACTION. Physical action. The outer journey of the play. Write a sentence or two to describe that action. eg. “The villain makes a drink for the hero, secretly putting drugs into the glass. The hero falls unconscious and the villain locks him in a cupboard.” Please note if the sentence reads something less action-packed and essential like “The villain offers to make a drink and the hero accepts. They talk about old times, and the hero is lulled into a false of safety”, this is NOT plot. There is no plot engine driving the scene, no plot point moving the action forward to the next plot point.
PSYCHOLOGY TEST
Next, ask yourself: does the scene contain information about the psychology of the characters? In other words, do we find out about the inner thoughts of the characters, their view point, their personal struggles, their motivations or fears? Do we hear about some aspect of their inner journey? Write a sentence or two about this: “The hero expresses his grief over the loss of his wife and promises to avenge her murder. His sister is frightened for his mental health and begs him to leave it to the police.” The scene lets us be privy to some internal thoughts of the characters, their motivations, opinions and concerns in relation to the plot.
PREMISE ALERT
Next, ask yourself: does the scene elaborate something about the overall premise of the play? Okay, so what’s a premise? Every good play has one. It’s a core idea that the playwright is exploring in the work. Some people call it a theme, but a premise is much more pithy. A premise can be a statement, but also it could be a question, on which the play is predicated. A premise is a naturally provocative statement, not a foregone conclusion; it is multi-faceted and complex.
For example: “Drug addicts forfeit their right to be parents.” It’s a bold statement, perhaps out there and controversial for some, and many people would have some strong opinions on it. You can imagine how a playwright might unpack the statement through the action of the play, looking at the premise from the different perspectives of the characters. As the play develops, so does the complexities of the premise. (Luna Gale by Rebecca Gilman has this premise)
Check if the scene you are interrogating holds some reference to the premise. Does it add a new perspective or advance the idea?
So now you’ve asked the PPP of the scene, here’s the rub. If the scene has all three P’s, you know it’s worth keeping in. If it has at least two solid P’s, then that’a probably a good scene. If it has only one of the three P’s….this scene is suspect and it better start working harder.
Writing plays is such a rarified work. It is not just a set of events populated by some folk. Obviously. I’ve heard someone describe plays as a story about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Yes, some are. But more accurately, plays are about the most dramatic moments of a story, the most concise and intense expression of it, and only in the tightest format. Everything on stage counts, every word, each tone. Each stage direction even. And so it follows that every scene needs to work hard for your purpose.
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