Henrik Knightingale on his Debut Play and How to Write a Compelling Story

The 22 year old playwright Henrik Knightingale has just released his debut play In His Own Shadow. The play is set 150 years into the future, where a miracle happens: a new theater play is produced - and it is actually good! Can stories about love restore our faith in existence? Knightingale sits down to talk about the craft of writing a story, how he overcomes the challenges of writing, and how he "kills his darlings". Putting his own play in context, he will also discuss the authors who spur him in his own writing, taking a look at the structure of Antigone and Cyrano de Bergerac. 👍✨ Support our show and get access to more than 200 exclusive posts: https://patreon.com/caveofapelles/ Chapter markers: 00:00: Intro 01:14 Learning how to essentialize 04:03 Sense of Life 06:16 Knightingale's play In His Own Shadow 11:45 The Shakespeare/Bacon theory 14:00 Questions unfold the plot 16:12 Starting to write 19:22 Causality, logic and internal consistency 27:59 The importance of a synopsis 31:40 Everything must serve a function 33:22 Climax and the inevitable 39:00 Developing the villain and killing your darlings 47:23 Subplots and double meaning 53:40 Learning how to write from Leonard Peikoff 56:07 “Plot theme” keeps you on track 59:48 Opposition, stakes and key concepts 1:05:08 “A nest of characters at each others' throat” 1:08:02 Trusting the audience 1:16:05 What is most vulnerable 1:19:28 The importance of being important This episode featured Henrik Knightingale & Jan-Ove Tuv and was filmed and edited by Bork Nerdrum. The centerpiece was a reproduction of Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich. SHOUTOUT to our TOP SPONSORS! Fergus Ryan Matthias Proy Diego Subscribe to our newsletter. It is the only way to make sure that you receive content from us on a regular basis: https://bit.ly/2L8qCNn Check out our other channels: https://www.youtube.com/c/SchoolofApelles https://www.youtube.com/c/CultureWarsNow Podcast available on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Spotify: https://soundcloud.com/caveofapelles https://spoti.fi/2AVDkcT https://apple.co/2QAcXD6 Website: https://caveofapelles.com Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/caveofapelles TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@caveofapelles Instagram: instagram.com/caveofapelles/ For inquiries — [email protected]