O'Neill's Editing

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > WORKING > EDITING > DIALOGUE > O'NEILL

'The play writes itself. The first draft writes itself anyway. Then I look at it and I find out what is in it. I find out where I have overextended it and what things need to be cut. I see where I have not found the scene. I see what I have to do for the character to exist fully. Then I rewrite. And of course in the rewrite there is a great deal of thought and sober analysis.'

-- María Irene Fornés

Here's Eugene O'Neill hacking away at part of a monologue in More Stately Mansions. The sections in bold type are what he kept . . .

. . . But you lie! You distort and exaggerate, as you always do! You know I do not take [it] that daydream seriously. I am lonely - desperately lonely - and bored! I am disgusted with watching my ailing, revolting body go from day to day. Anything to divert my mind and forget myself to wile away the time. . . .

And after all the editing, here's the result in several of his great plays -- and several of the great plays of the American theatre . . .

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