Playwriting is a multifaceted craft that requires a diverse set of skills to impact audiences. Excellent plays grip viewers’ attention, spark emotion, and come alive when performed onstage. Accomplished playwrights utilize specific techniques to construct meaningful stories, develop complex characters, maximize theatricality, and polish the writing itself. Mastering certain dramatic writing practices takes plays to the next level. The following playwriting tips will hopefully help you in your venture of creating your next work of art.
Playwrights set objectives to determine strategic storytelling choices that help actualize the playwright’s vision. Common dramatic goals include sparking social discourse, exploring complex themes, uplifting audiences, creating wholly original worlds, and conveying unique emotional experiences. With a fixed dramatic objective in mind from the start, writers can craft plays purposefully to create intended impacts.
At the core of every exceptional play are vibrant, multilayered characters audiences connect with. Skilled playwrights know that character development underpins the audience’s emotional investment. Each principal character should have a clear external goal they pursue throughout the play that drives actions and decisions. Giving characters varied, conflicting motivations results in intriguing interactions. Distinctive dialogue unpacked through subtext and organic conversations unveils personalities.
Playwrights also build complexity by allowing protagonists to exhibit unlikeable behaviors that encourage reflection on the human condition. Dynamic characters who grow, change, or deteriorate throughout the play tend to resonate most with audiences. Theatre giants like Arthur Miller, Henrik Ibsen, and August Wilson demonstrate crafting protagonists who serve as fascinating character studies.
Of all the tips on playwriting, this is one of the most important. The arrangement of story events strongly impacts audience engagement from start to finish. Playwrights shape layered stories following principles of dramatic structure. Usually, the inciting incident occurs early, showing the catalytic event that upends a character’s world. In the central body of the play, scene sequences feature rising action where conflicts accumulate and stakes intensify. The climax represents the peak complication or crisis before giving way to the falling action that builds to the resolution.
Playwrights tweak conventional linear dramatic arc formulas to serve creative aims. Prolific contemporary writer Alan Ball, famous for works like American Beauty and Six Feet Under, often depicts protagonists who begin stories in crisis mode and then retrospectively reveal backstory details over time.
Respected avant-garde playwright Suzan-Lori Parks utilizes radical techniques like shifting chronology and layering temporal spaces. Groundbreaking structure helps plays surprise audiences and achieve desired impacts. Whatever dramatic arc approach is employed, the storyline should keep viewers riveted from lights up through the satisfied conclusion.
Plays lean heavily on dialogue to perform the bulk of storytelling. Playwrights diction, phrasing, and word choice for each character requires thoughtful attention. Dialogue must progress story events, unveil personality traits, and incite emotional responses. Actors in many plays engage in dialogue for over 75% of stage time, making speech patterns crucial for sustaining audience attention.
Study diction in plays like emitting different social cues. David Mamet captures the brutal, spare, interruptive masculine vernacular between friends in works like Glengarry Glen Ross. Lorraine Hansberry’s regal African-American matriarch in A Raisin in the Sun speaks gracefully even when facing oppression. Beyond diction, excellent plays feature catalytic dialogue exchanges called “beats” that alter relationships or redirect the story.
Playwrights also heighten audience experience by embracing theatricality rooted in the live stage medium. Techniques like incorporating music/sound effects, stylized movement sequences, multimedia displays, elaborate props, and scene transitions capture theatrical magic missing in prose or film. Playwrights select specific theatrical conventions that organically match their storyline, genre, and dramatic objectives.
For example, visionary director Julie Taymor amplified the fantastical elements of her Broadway adaptation of The Lion King using groundbreaking costumes, masks, puppets, and kinetic sets based on Indonesian/African dramatic arts.
Distinct theatric choices transport audiences imaginatively, aiding the world-building of plays. Playwriting maverick Thornton Wilder kept props and scenery to a bare minimum in Our Town, maximizing the theater’s power by explicitly telling viewers to engage their minds.
Of all the playwriting tips a playwright gets, one of the most repeated is to continually work on your craft. While playwriting necessitates creativity, the writing itself requires diligent editing and refinement, just like any writing pursuit. Playwrights hone their command of stylistic components like punctuation use, grammatical conventions, precise vocabulary, balanced syntax, and concise phrasing. Screenwriting guru Robert McKee notes that plays with sloppy writing filled with technical weaknesses will fail to respect the audience’s intelligence, damaging engagement.
Playwrights also fine-tune descriptive stage directions that guide blocking and character actions. For example, Tennessee Williams’ screen direction notes for the seminal work, A Streetcar Named Desire, offer actor insights into character motivations and subtexts behind the lines. The play form affects writing style choices on aspects like genre awareness, adaptation of source prose, and development of scene rhythms.
Even once a promising first draft is complete, playwrights commit to extensive phases of rewriting and editing to elevate scripts. Gaining feedback from informal table readings allows writers to assess pacing, dialogue triggers, and clarity of stakes. Successful plays like War Horse by Nick Stafford underwent over 30 drafts through years of painstaking rewriting before hitting Broadway.
Editing rigor applies right through final drafts headed toward production. Acclaimed writers still fine-tune phrasing for precision, prune unnecessary exchanges, rearrange scene experiments, and clarify character desires at late phases.
Editing play drafts share similarities with sculpture artists chiseling away excess material from stone blocks; finding the perfect final form requires subtracting imperfect elements. Savvy playwrights consider rewriting not just a necessity, but an opportunity to maximize impact.
Even before committing to extensive rewrites, playwrights use table readings to hear dialogue exchanges aloud. Readings assess which passages captivate listeners versus dragging—invaluable feedback for tweaking scripts. Hearing comedic lines without audience laughter reveals punchlines to punch up. Playwrights examine responses to characters during readings to determine who appeals to audiences versus who falls flat.
Beyond getting general tone responses, readings pinpoint structural dramas around scene order coherence, undeveloped characters, confusing plot turns, and dragging dialogue exchanges.
Public readings through organizations like the Playwrights Foundation supply this diagnostic feedback from theater insiders. Emphasizing user testing and iteration aligns playwriting with design thinking approaches used in software and product development. Tryouts make plays more audience-centric.
Career playwrights immerse themselves in theater communities to understand the collaborative art form’s intricacies. Seeing a diversity of plays across genres, subject matters, and styles expands creative horizons.
The Dramatist Guild features message boards for writers to exchange best practices on resolution scripts, securing commissions, attending retreats, finding licensing support, and more. In regional hubs like Chicago or London, playwriting neophytes can volunteer for roles like dramaturges or artistic directors to demystify theater workings. Savvy playwrights also befriend directors, actors, and producers who provide mentoring on tailoring scripts for the stage.
Resources like Playbill chronicle the latest works generating buzz, while American Theater Magazine profiles avant-garde artists taking creative risks. Consuming books on theater history also informs play development contexts missing for screenwriters less familiar with the stage. Just as master carpenters continuously hone their trade by examining other skilled craftsmen’s creations for inspiration, seasoned playwrights surround themselves with the art form’s past, present, and future pioneers.
The adage “write what you know” has special relevance for impactful playwrights. Mining personal episodes as source material often yields the most authentic emotional moments. Respected contemporary scribe Dominique Morisseau populates her Detroit-based plays with experiences of growing up as a woman of color in working-class communities. August Wilson channeled his upbringing living through the Hill District’s vibrant evolution in Pittsburgh into his heralded American Century Cycle series of plays.
Beyond pivotal life moments, playwrights funnel interesting acquaintances into dimensional characters. Quirky facial expressions a barista made while pouring coffee may seed an idea for a specificity-rich supporting role. An improbable anecdote from a friend could inspire the outlandish scenario of a farcical third act. Real exchanges rewritten into snappy dialogue carry verisimilitude. Great playwrights act as journalistic observers of human experiences around them, stockpiling distinctive moments to drive new works.
While mastering playwriting techniques proves vital, excellence also requires nurturing an authentic writing voice. Much like standup comics define their onstage persona, signature stylistic moves and thematic fascinations help playwrights’ work feel original. Resist chasing temporary fads or mimicking whatever script just won awards, instead focusing on sincere self-expression serving the underlying material.
Ask probing questions to extract voice organically: Am I responding honestly to this play concept resonating with me? Do these characters and dramatic situations stem from real human truths I’ve glimpsed? Is my dialogue phrasing in this scene something I can personally envision a version of myself saying or hearing? The answers guide finding one’s innate voice.
Playwriting workflows also unlock voice as writers see reoccurring creative instincts. Fantastical invention arises easily for Suzan Lori-Parks, revealed through fairy-tale poems and magic realist-infused historical works. Similarly, Martin McDonagh gravitates toward dark comedies featuring absurd escalations of violence. Their artistic senses guide subject matter and stylistic choices. Tailor workflows around those innate predilections instead of forcing uncomfortable themes or rigidly applying external principles.
Playwrights also access distinctive voice by identifying signature refrains in their work, resonating through pieces. The vocal rhythm of Hawaiian culture lives proudly at the center of modern trailblazer Victoria Nālani Kneubuhl’s consciousness-raising productions. Similarly, references to Old Hollywood cinema and depictions of Los Angeles permeate multiple works by prodigious darling Lauren Gunderson. Their plays almost act as uniform collections stamped by their focused interests versus isolated efforts. Such cohesion and clarity blooms by first locating one’s singular writing voice.
Ultimately, seasoned playwrights know that mastery results from perpetual learning rather than achieving some finite skill ceiling. Dramatic writers improve by putting new techniques explored in workshops into practice through each script attempted. The more tools in a playwright’s toolkit around characterization, theatricality, and structuring, the better.
Even acclaimed playwrights like Tom Stoppard, winner of multiple Tony and Olivier awards plus an Academy Award, still dives into new creative territory four decades into his storied career. In his most recent work, Leopoldstadt utilizes a sprawling ensemble to explore fresh themes of family and generational change. Stoppard refuses to remain static. Similarly, indomitable creator Edward Albee churned out radical works like Three Tall Woman well into his seventies, which revolved around subjects he had never tackled before on stage.
Great playwrights stay students of their evolving craft while resisting formulaic tendencies. They submit new works to fellow respected artists for honest feedback. Such humility and courage to lay bare one’s writing vulnerabilities is the path to lasting ingeniousness. Iconic plays come from intrepid minds ready to push dramatic frontiers outward through another risk-taking piece. Maintaining determined progression and avoiding inertia helps playwriting masters shape the very future of theater itself, one odyssey at a time.
We hope that these tips on playwriting have opened your eyes to what is needed to create a solid stage play that will capture the attention of important decision-makers. Developing such potent dramatic works happens by design, not by accident or mystically ordained talent. A playwright must continually work at improving their craft as they continue on the artistic journey they’ve chosen.