Intermission
a creative coffee break from writing the play

A great online resource is Richard Tuscan’s "The Playwriting Seminars."

There is no great book on playwriting, except maybe, Lojas Ejri’s The Art of Dramatic Writing.

And, of course, Aristotle’s Poetics.

Stuart Spencer’s The Playwright’s Guidebook is pretty good. Albee even likes it.

Jeffrey Hatcher’s The Art and Craft of Playwriting is decent.

There are tons of books. All you have to do is search Amazon books, or go to the library.

The best book on writing ten minute plays, if that’s your thing, is Gary Garrison’s The Perfect Ten.

For good measure, read Gary’s The New, Improved Playwright’s Survival Guide: Keeping the Drama In Your Work and Out of Your Life.

A lot of people think they can write a play. I have not found that to be true. Even though some of ‘em even get produced.

The best play you’ve
written is not your first, or even your second. There just aren’t that
many Margaret Edsons of you out there. However, if you only write one play, make it as good as Edson’s.

Take a class. Learn play structure. Yes, there’s a structure. You can’t throw it away until you know what it is.

Make friends with actors. Don’t begrudge that they need to eat, and can’t always travel 3,000 miles to read your play for free.

The best advice I can give you, which most of you won’t take:  See as
many plays as you can. What kind of playwright never attends the
theatre?

I’ve been finishing up a play that I began around May 2006. Nearly two years seems like an abnormally long time to me, yet I know it was begun while finishing up a different play, and another project or two was introduced along the way which distracted me from it.

I’ve been examining the play scene by scene, watching out for an absence of conflict, of wanting, of tension. (At first I typed "dramatic tension." Well, duh, redundo-me.) I know I’m at the end of writing this play because I’m already missing the characters who’ve been living inside me. Mostly, I hate saying good-bye to characters. We’ve spent a lot of time together, and it feels lonely at first. Sometimes I can’t wait to be done with them. Those times usually fade away, reflecting the play isn’t engaging even to me, and pages must be trashed.

Of course, the end means the play moves into revision stage. MBH will give me notes. I’ll bring actors together to hear the whole of it out loud. It’s at the revision stage I become more detached, more distant, more ruthless (please let that be so) about what is working and what is not.

I’ve been worrying the play is too "heavy with message." It is a heavy story about reconciliation. All my plays are funny, yet they are still dramas. On some level, my plays are political if only because the characters are often outside the mainstream of society. All my plays explore the consequence of choice made by each of the characters.

Well, I won’t know if the story’s "too much" until I let go and finish it.

Along side the play, I’ve been working on the television project MBH and I are creating. Since I left California, I’ve been a negligent writing partner, and I’ve been trying to pick up my slack. Besides, it’s a fun project with no pressure. MBH, along with his wife, will be here soon to visit, work on our project, and take in the Humana Festival.

A year ago, we were on the precipice, deciding between living in Chicago or Louisville.

The aforementioned play has changed, some new bold elements introduced, because of the choice we made.

Since I last posted about swapping books, movies and music, I’ve received some pretty cool books from Bookmooch, found new homes for over 50 of my own. Thanks to Bookmooch, I’m finally reading Uncommon Arrangements. When this book was reviewed, a least a dozen people, knowing my obsession about Radclyffe Hall, sent me clippings. Y’all can rest easy now, my friends.

While I haven’t ventured out to other book swapping sites, I did cancel my Peerflix account for DVDs. I’m trying out a different DVD swapping site called, Swap A DVD. So far, I’m pretty happy with it as it feels more respectful, trading person to person. Much like Bookmooch, you get credits for posting DVDs, and for giving your DVDs away. To get DVDs, you spend your credits. Swap A DVD is a sister site to Paperback Swap, which, like I’ve already said, I have not tried.

Well said…I love this!

From the New York Times. Click below to read Ms. Norman’s post.