Yep, I've been working pretty hard trying to finish When Tomorrow Comes. Now that the script is finished I've entered the editing phase. There's a phrase I heard, or read, or was told a while ago. Even before I began a creative writing course. It was killing you darlings. Usually, it refers to that passage that you irrationally proud of, or that sentence that is so beautifully written. We're told that such passages or sentences should be cut, or even removed altogether. In fairness, I'm usually good about cutting stuff. I just don't always get around to the editing thing.
This time though, I've realised that there are no big passages of speech or scenes that I absolutely love. Nope, for whatever reason I'm irrationally proud of one of the characters. He appears in every scene, but on a reading of the script, he doesn't actually do anything. At least, he doesn't do anything important. He's just kind of there spewing out dialogue. Don't get me wrong, some of the dialogue is actually quite interesting, but it doesn't actually move the script along or tell us anything about the characters.
Now, I've acted a part like that. Two actually. In the same play. Lucky Sods (a John Godber play). I played an american waiter, with an extremely dubious and altogether awful accent. I also played a vicar. Now the waiter, he actually didn't do much of anything. In fact, the waiter's only purpose in the play is to allow the actor playing Morris Sod to get a costume change. Seriously, you could cut the waiter's dialogue with Jean and the play would be in no way affected. The vicar serves a slight purpose in showing the audience how Jean and Morris are now always being asked for lottery tips and/or money.
So I guess that actually, that isn't true. Those characters in Lucky Sods don't really do much true, but there is at least a tenuous reason for them to be there. Even if the actor playing them did spend an inordinate amount time in the dressing room playing worms on his laptop. Honestly, you can get a lot of games played when you are on stage for a grand total of four pages. Actually, now that I think about it I'm not entirely sure that I was playing games on my laptop during Lucky Sods. I may have been, but I think that actually it might have been The Bed Before Yesterday...or was that Civilisation III that we were playing in the dressing room?
Anyway I digress. My character, you know the one I started this blog by talking about? Yeah, well he certainly doesn't do anything. So I've decided that he's going to make the ultimate sacrifice. He's going to be killed off in a ridiculous way. I'm not sure what kind of ridiculous way. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd gladly steal the idea! The question is, does he die before or after the interval? I think it may have to be before the interval.
The problem that I face with killing off the character is, of course, that I am actually changing the entire plot of the play and will have to edit all the stuff that come in after the death. Still, it might just liven the play up a bit.
Well, I'm off to brainstorm a bit more...
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