Things to Keep in Mind when Writing Your First Play

It's an exciting time in your life. You've gained some fabulous real world theatre experience: perhaps you've acted, perhaps you've stage managed, perhaps you've directed. Or maybe you have no theatre experience, but are ready to take your fiction writing to a whole new level. I am talking about the decision to write your first play. Becoming a playwright for the first time can be incredibly exhilarating. Seeing characters and dialogue that you created come to life before your eyes is like watching a child being born, the creation of a brand new entity. But this can be an incredibly challenging undertaking, and if you're starting out brand new, there are a lot of common speed bumps that you may hit along the way. Here are some crucial concepts to keep in mind as you begin writing your debut piece.

How Do People Speak and Behave in Real Life?

When editing plays, I have frequently seen a common problem from myriad writers: while their basic idea and plot are good, their characters don't speak or conduct themselves in an even slightly realistic manner. New playwrights will often have their characters speak in long paragraphs. Their intention is good - they're utilizing their character's speech to advance their storyline. But it is important to remember that if people don't speak a certain way in real life, they probably don't speak that way in a fictional depiction of real life either. A good rule of thumb is that it is better to advance the storyline through a long conversation with short individual lines than with a short conversation of very long lines. While it may be important at some point in the text to have a character recite a very lengthy monologue, this is not the norm for the bulk of your script.

Is This Feasible?

I think it's wonderful when playwrights or any creative types dream big and think outside the box. Life is boring, and theatre is an excellent opportunity to do things in fiction and on stage that could not be done in the real world. However, many novice playwrights will take this dreamy attitude a bit too far and create scripts that could not plausibly be produced, not even by a big budget Broadway company. If a character needs to fly during a dream sequence, chances are that the theatre that will be producing your piece won't have the capacity to keep an actor up on wires and move them around the air. This is the time where creativity is key: how else could you convey the same concept or emotion with plausible stage direction or effects? A great script isn't one that pushes the limits of technical capabilities, but rather one with a rich plot and characters that makes people think.

Hopefully you will be able to keep those ideas in mind when writing your first script. Remember to keep your characters and dialogue realistic, and to visualize what each scene will look like as you write. Watching your first play on opening night is amazing, and it's a feeling that I hope you will have very soon.