Sometimes in order to make a piece of writing stronger you have to remove something. Whether that's a conversation between two characters, a whole scene, a whole narrative thread or maybe even a whole character. In today’s episode I unpack the common piece of writing advice to ‘kill your darlings’ and share some of the provocations and writing tasks that have helped me cut material from my latest draft.I speak about:- Stepping back and looking at your play as a whole rather than its individual parts.- We often default to adding something to our draft to improve it, but subtraction is just as important.- How to know when to add something and when to take something away.- When not to kill your darlings. - Why going for clarity in each moment of the script isn’t the same as being vanilla.- Some prompts for cutting dialogue, cutting drama beats, cutting key events, cutting scenes, cutting narrative threads, cutting whole characters and cutting stage time.I reference:- Episode 28 ‘Character Development’- Episode 38 ‘Stay With the Story’- Mark Ravenhill’s series of tweets ‘101 Notes on Playwriting’See Monument at Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre!By Emily Sheehan and directed by Ella CaldwellFebruary 20 - March 10, 2024Book now: https://www.redstitch.net/monument-2024 See Frame Narrative at The Old Fitz Theatre!By Emily Sheehan and directed by Lucy ClementsMarch 8 - 30, 2024Book now: https://www.oldfitztheatre.com.au/frame-narrativeGet one-on-one support for your writing by visiting www.emilysheehan.info/dramaturgy and say hi, ask a writing question or request a podcast topic on instagram @emilysheehan__.

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