Playwriting Tips

Writing a good play can be a challenge.   Here are a few tips to help you with making your play good or better.

1)  Start by reading and watching quality scripts and plays.  Published plays have been through the whole process of writing, re-writing and editing.  At least in theory, they have worked out most of the bugs toward having a quality script (some published scripts, admittedly, fall short).  Reading acting editions of published scripts can help a lot.  You can find scripts at most college and public libraries.  Every branch of the St. Louis County Library has a "Play File"...a large file cabinet full of acting editions of published plays.  Watching plays also helps (although you aren't given the opportunity to see the written stage directions) in creating good plays too.

2)  Transcribing everyday conversations doesn't typically make good drama.  In real life, we use extra words, sentences and paragraphs that don't really contribute to the conversation.  Pay attention next time you are talking with your family around the dinner table...a five minute conversation may include 10 or 15 different topics...plays must be more "economical" with their words.

3)  Every character must NEED something.  More exactly, every character must NEED TO DO something.  Once you've decided what the character's OBJECTIVE is, make sure everything they do or say is a TACTIC to achieve that objective.  Furthermore, in addition to each character's overall objective for the play. if they are in multiple scenes, they also have an objective for each scene.  Finally, each character should have another character whose objective is in DIRECT CONFLICT with theirs.  For instance, the two characters in one scene are Sam and Alex.  Sam needs to leave the room.  Alex needs Sam to stay in the room.  Notice that at least one character will NOT achieve their objective...one will succeed, one will fail.

4) Remember that the action of the play should be shown, not told.  In other words, avoid the use of a narrator at ALL costs.  "But what about Our Town?  Very successful play, and it has a narrator." My response:  learn why the rules exist before you try to break them.  By using action and dialogue to show the action (even the PRIOR ACTION) it makes the action MUCH more interesting to the audience.

5)  One technical rule:  In your stage directions, refer to parts of the location rather than parts of the stage.  In other words, rather than saying "GEORGE moves to the right door," say "GEORGE moves to the front door."  Why?  Not every director will put the front door, fireplace, kitchen table or couch  in the same locations.  Using left and right in your directions will be confusing especially in productions that, for whatever reason, don't use the same floor plan that you envision. 

6)  Don't expect your first draft to be your final draft.  

     a) Have a group (preferably people who haven't read your script before) read your script out loud...things that don't read the way you hoped will start jumping off the page.  

     b) Double and triple check for spelling and grammatical errors.  Grammatical errors that are a result of how the character speaks are okay as long as they are consistent.  Stage directions should always use proper grammar.  

     c) Even professional playwrights, go through several re-writes before they even submit the play to a publisher.  

     d) If time allows, try putting the script away for a week or two and then read it again...some mistakes will become obvious to you when you pick it back up.

"Destination Playwriting" Unit Guide

"Destination Playwriting" Guidelines

"How do I know what to write about?" you may be asking.  There are many sites online that deal with plot (story) statements for plays and stories.  Two such sites are listed below.  As these sites are not sponsored in any way by the theatre company, we cannot be held liable for any of their content.  We also do not guarantee that a script based on all of the provided story ideas would be acceptable for the theatre company's use (see contest guidelines for content criteria) While we have read some of the examples, there are more than 2000 on one of the sites and it is not possible for us to read all of them.  If you know or find any other quality sites containing plot or story ideas, let us know so that we can pass them on.  The site addresses are:

http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/CALLIHOO/ideagen2.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/nc/tcrpress/plots1.html

Sign Up For Our Mailing Lists

Help with Search