Plasticity of the scenario

Plasticity of the scenario.-outlining your plan, your scenario, is plastic. It is a guide ; if while at work writing the actual play you find a better way of "getting there" than your guide suggests, do not hesitate to take it. Any form which gives you a feeling of rigidity, of compulsion, is only of use as practice in the work of filling in. I am sure the resulting play would be stiff and formal. Eugene Scribe went so far as to say: "When my scenario is very clear, very complete, I might have the play written by my servant." One wonders what kind of servant he had. So "fluid "—as William Archer expresses it—is your scenario that it is possible not only to shift scenes and characters, even to the point of complete elimination or substitution, but the very nature and quality of the idea you are working out may be changed. What may have impressed you as a farcical idea when you started grows into something so serious as to be almost tragic. This shows the importance of sifting and re-sifting all your material again and again. The more thoroughly this is done before starting your play, the less alteration afterward you will be compelled to make. But this, as elsewhere throughout your apprenticeship, is where only practice and experience can be your guide.