Curated Episodes of The Playwriting Podcast by Topic
THE EMOTIONAL EVENT MAP!
Information on how to build a great Emotional Event Map!
HOW TO WRITE A MURDER MYSTERY!
WRITING A MUSICAL!
DARE TO BE INSANELY CREATIVE!
How to Write a Fight Scene!
TECHNIQUES FOR BETTER EDITING!
On this Episode #177, I offer these 10 Editing questions below, along with the process of editing.
1. Is there a clear problem & action related to the problem that needs to be solved in each scene? If not, fix it.
2. Does this scene top the scene before? If not, fix it.
3. Are your characters saying too many words? Do they need to say three sentences when they could say the same thing in one sentence?
4. Do your characters speak in clear and distinctly different ways? If not, how can you make them consistently different?
5. Are your characters telling stories that don’t have a dramatic event attached to the telling of the story? If not, cut them or make them two sentences tops. I’m serious. (A story with a dramatic event attached could be a Coming Out story, or a Break Up story.)
6. Are the characters saying too little? Is it clear what is happening in each EVENT?
7. Are you telling BACK STORY to the audience that is not intrinsically told during a dramatic action moment in the scene? If not, fix it!
8. Is the scene too long? Could it be a page or two shorter and still convey all the important information and ACTION that will propel this play to its dramatic conclusion?
9. Is the scene too short? Are the actions and events in this scene big enough?
10. Do you need this scene? Does this scene top the scene before, and propel the dramatic action of the play? If you answer yes to this - keep the scene. If no, cut it!