On Writing

“It’s just as hard to write a terrible play as it is to write a good one.” I’m paraphrasing, but that was a very wise comment from John Longenbaugh, a Seattle playwright who recently published Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol, as well as a collection of short plays, Arcana. It doesn't summarize everything we talked about, but it certainly offers a nice, shiny example of the level of discourse we enjoyed at our playwright's Q&A last night. Don't forget, we have an event with managing and artistic directors of Seattle theatre companies coming up in August, as well. Details are here. 

We covered a lot of ground, from dealing with writer’s block (or if it even exists) to where you write, how you write (although we didn’t get to WHY we write really), and just how much stage direction you should include and whether you can “director-proof” your plays. 

In summary, when we asked each writer for their words of wisdom, we got this:

Louise Penberthy, regarding submitting plays to theatres, said to do your homework. You get better results with research that results in a cover letter and blurb directed at the company and why your play would be ideal for them and their audience. She’s been told that one of the many “rules” of writing is that you have to capture your reader in the first ten minutes. But, she made sure to point out, “you don’t have to capture everyone, just the right one.”

Louise collects and distributes a lot of wisdom like this via her website, playwrightsmuse.com. 

John said, “Writing a play is not about the elements (dialogue, stage direction, etc) as much as it is about holding the audience for a set period of time. That’s the game you play with the audience. It’s the game they come to play with you. Bad plays are written by writers who don’t understand this.”

Beau said, “Everyone will tell you what works and what to do. Most creative writing books and classes are on what works for the writer or teacher, and therefore it will have to work for you. That’s completely inaccurate. Find what works for you and keep doing it and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. 

Secondly, you have to have confidence in what you’re doing. If you aren’t sitting down excited about what you’re doing and sure that you’re going to kick ass and take names, then why bother? Especially when you’re starting out, you’re going to have to be your own cheerleader.”

Scott Herman said that what works best is writing real characters and real situations that are relatable to an audience. He also said, “Praise is useless. I want to know what you hate.”