He's Dead

Well, I did it.

I killed him.

Actually, it wasn't who I thought it would be. After I wrote the last post, I went through four characters, trying to decide who would be the one to die. In the end, the same character got shot as I was expecting, but a second character gave his life to save the first.

It works. I think. (I've never written a death before)

And this means the first draft of the entire play is finished. But now that I know how it ends, I need to back and fix some things.

• I need to rework the character who does the shooting. I need to make her angry enough, and crazy enough, to pull the trigger. This anger/craziness comes through in places, but it's not consistent.
• I need to settle on the main character. I think I know who it should be (the one who dies), but it may be the one who is shot but is saved.
• I need to fix some problems with another one of the characters; his personality is somewhat inconsistent in Act II.

So, I'm going to let this sit for a couple of days. My playwrighting class is tomorrow, so I won't have a chance to write again until Thursday anyway.

My next step will be to read the whole thing from beginning to end, which will help me decide the "main character" question, as well as identify other problems. Then I'll address the problems I've identified one by one.

At some point in the next few weeks, I'll bring it in to class. I brought the first part of Act II a couple of weeks ago, so I was thinking I would just bring in the rest. But now I suspect I'll want to see the whole thing (both acts).

BTW, Act I is 48 pages, Act II is 44, for a total of 92. That's a good overall length It's also good to have the first act be a little longer than the second: if that's not the case, the play will feel unbalanced.