My 7 Most Profound Writing Tips

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Just this weekend, I decided to check out my own Podcast, The Playwriting Podcast, to see what I could learn. (What? I recorded it? LEARN?) AND what I found was really interesting.

I saw playwriting tips that I currently use and I saw some tips which I currently avoid, which are actually super useful. So just for fun, I thought I would go back and list my 7 most profound writing tips, the tips which truly make a difference for me in my writing process.

Here we go:

1. WRITE WRITE WRITE, WAIT WAIT, MAYBE SLEEP, THEN EDIT.

Writing and editing are two different things. My best practice is to write and then sleep and then edit. I write, then take some time away from writing and go back fresh with a new brain and I edit. This is my most profound writing practice. Been doing it for years and it works.

2. MAKE A PLAN.

Plot out your play with EVENTS that happen in each scene, with things that happen on stage. Yes, take the time to make an outline with action and events from the beginning of your play to the end. Know in advance what you are going to write, and your writing will flow like never before.

When you have a plan, you don't fall down rabbit holes and get lost in undirected creativity, and you complete your first draft infinitely faster. There is nothing wrong with undirected creativity, but it may take you a lot longer to complete your play, if you complete it at all.

But once you get your ideas and plot outlined with clear dramatic action and events happening in every scene, writing your play becomes incredibly easy.

So make a plan, a map of your play with EVENTS and CLEAR DRAMATIC ACTION. This really works.

3. KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS.

Write about people you know, people in your life, just change the names or the occupation, or the context. When you make your characters people you know the dialogue flows like never before for you know your characters!

4. GET OFF YOUR COMPUTER AND WRITE ON REAL PAPER.

There is something amazing about writing by hand, especially when you feel stuck. There is some sort of physical connection - hand to brain to creative consciousness that often jump starts your creativity. So bag the computer when the creative flow dries up, and try writing by hand with pen and paper.

5. USE TECHNOLOGY TO WRITE EVERYWHERE.

Write on your PHONE. Dictate your play into your PHONE and watch it magically type for you. Write in short intervals on the Subway on your PHONE or IPAD, or when you have 10 minutes in a coffee shop. Know that you can ALWAYS “imput” your play where it will be safe and saved (If you use Icloud or Dropbox) wherever you are. I have written full length plays in 10 minute intervals on my Phone. It is awesome.

6. WHEN YOU FEEL STUCK WITH "WRITER'S BLOCK"... RESEARCH!

When you feel like the words are not flowing on the page, take your writing time and research your play during that time. Research info on the setting, the time period, the genre. Watch movies that relate to what you are writing. See and read other plays of the same genre that are set in the same time period, or location. Become a sponge of information about the world of your play. And when you get back to writing, you will be surprised what manifests.

7. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND YOUR INNATE CREATIVITY.

Get out of your own way. Make the choice to believe that you have a unique voice and can write an amazing play. Stop listening to the negative voices in your head, and focus on that still strong voice inside your heart, that KNOWS you are a great writer. 

AND GET TO WORK!!

Need some help?

Plan your play!

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For some unknown reason, scores of playwrights believe that the concept of planning a play from the beginning to the end, with clear events and actions in each scene, with scenes that top each other in some unique way, leading to a climax, will mess with their creativity.

Mess with your creativity? Is that true? Have you ever tried it? Maybe you could write a better play?

Planning your play is a smart strategy to write a compelling play.

I often get this:

“I like to start and see where my creativity takes me.”

Why don’t you try using your creativity to plan your play and see where it takes you, so you don’t waste time being serendipitous randomly writing your play?

“Planning a play is too much work.”

Anything great in life requires work.

Do you really want to write a great play?

What would happen if we built buildings without a clear gameplan and blueprint? We would create makeshift retrofitted buildings that would never stand the test of time.

So you want your play to stand the test of time? Do you want to build a story that is compelling, involving and dramatic? (Yes, even comedies are compelling, involving and dramatic.) Do you want to write a Masterpiece?

I don’t believe that planning your play is the only way to write a play, for it isn’t. Yet, in my experience in coaching playwrights, 9 out of 10, once they finally plan their play, find writing it exhilerating, easy, and they produce some of their best work ever!

Do you want to be more productive? Write better plays with a faster and a more effective workflow?

Try planning your play with clear events and actions in each scene, with scenes that top each other in some unique way, leading to a climax. And then write it from your plan, build it, make it real and alive!

Our biggest challenge is the part of us that thinks we know it all. If we know it all, why would we want to do something new, even if we are told it could work for us? We don’t do something new for we have decided in advance without trying it, that it won’t work.

And that could be true.

But until you try something, you will never know.

As a creator and teacher, I try to be open to everything, even that planning your play won’t work for you.

And I invite you to try it out, like when you try on a new outfit at the store. You don’t know you want to buy it until you put it on, and it fits right and you look great, so you buy it.

But if you never tried it on, you would have missed out on a fantastic outfit.

Don’t miss out on a fantastic play because of something you believe to be true.

Find out.

Challenge your beliefs about your possibilities as a playwright and creator.

Challenge your beliefs every day.

For you are a lot more than you think.