Writing is re-writing
I finished writing Marina and the Clone more than two years ago - or so I thought. First drafts are called first drafts for a reason.
Since I first wrote those immortal words THE END the play has undergone one after another after another re-write. Starting with its first public outing at a rehearsed reading, a really important stage in the development of any script. After all if you don't know how an audience reacts to your work how do you know you got it right (or wrong?)
It's nerve wracking going public but those fifteen or twenty people who've taken the time to come and listen to your play, many of which you'll know very well, are an absolutely key part of the journey. They'll no doubt tell you that they like your work, after all they like you, but they will also let you now if there are parts that they don't understand or questions they have about the story.
Sometimes being so close and so engrossed in your work means that you lose sight of how your story sounds to the outside world. You obviously understand every character, every motive and every reason that the script goes in the way it does but that doesn't necessarily mean that your audience do too. So do the rehearsed reading, take notes, watch when people laugh or gasp or just react in any way. At the same time listen to how it sounds. Does it make sense when you hear it read out? Is the pace right? Are there any gaps? And give the audience an opportunity to write down what they liked, what they didn't like and anything else you want to know about your play.
Then re-write. Take the comments, absorb them, reject some if you really think they're wrong but use them because they're valuable. Then do it again. Give it some breathing time maybe but take your new version out there again. I have three people whose opinions I respect when it comes to writing for the theatre and I invariably bug them to read everything I write and let me know what they think.
So anyway, here I am more than two years after writing THE END. Marina and the Clone has had two rehearsed readings, a bunch of friends have critiqued it and two new characters have been added. It's got to the second stage of the BBC's Writers Room, it has a completely different ending and I finally have a version which I'm taking to the rehearsal room.
But I suspect it won't end there... When I see how it works in rehearsals I'll want to tweak it further before it hits final production.
Writing is, after all, re-writing.
