On the Subject of Playwriting

Most of us write something longer than our names in our lifetimes. We can't help it. It is the artistic side of our human natures that draws us to it. Some people are content to merely write articles or poetry. However, this is another, stranger, form of writing called playwriting or screen writing. Playwriting is used by people who want to write plays. It is the writing of a script of some sort, be it a script for a stage play or musical, or a script for a movie or tv show. Writing a script, however, is very different from what you might think. In some ways, it is easier than writing your average poem or article, but in other ways it is much, much harder. Playwriting has it's own unique form, like I said earlier, and sometimes it is difficult for people to grasp the finer points of writing scripts.

One thing that you must understand is that playwriting requires you to really cut out quite a bit of the detail and fine points of the story. For those of you who like to describe your settings and dialog and character development in great detail, you may not want to try your hand at playwriting. There is a large trust factor in the craft. The reason you must leave out the detail is because directors like to do things their way, hence the trust factor. You trust them to fill the gaps you must leave in the script with their own personally touched material.

If you manage to work past having to cut out so much of your own original content (for more information on that subject, just google the phrase "kill your darlings"), then you are still faced with the challenge of finding ideas and inspiration for your script. Books are different. They can be written from front to finish if you really want to tell the story. That is because they allow you to unleash more creativity, so that the writing just flows more naturally than it would if you planned it out. Playwriting, because you have to cut back on the creativity, usually needs to be planned out. Stephen King can write his material without knowing how anything is going to turn out. Playwriting usually can't be done this way, and that causes the people writing to sometimes lose their creative inspiration. Here's a tip. Don't rely on yourself for creativity. Go outside, sit down for a while and just take everything in. Soon you will have a writer's view on the world. Is that a honeybee flying around that dandelion, or is it a flying demon hell-bent on mankind's destruction? Anything can be a good plot for a play or... anything, really.

No one can ever really tell you how to write a play. Every playwright has his or her own unique style. Find yours, and you'll be able to write excellent works of art. Be warned though, don't try to copy someone else's style. What works for them probably won't work for you. Good luck!

No sources except experience were used in this article