To Outline Or Not To . . .

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > WORKING > OUTLINING >

'So I made an outline. Well, you know, days are going by, and I am not writing anything because this thing is laid out in front of me. It's as if you get every brochure for a trip you are going to go on and you get the minutest details of every step along the way. Well, I really doubt you're going to then get in the car and go. You know, it's like, why bother if it's all laid out in front of you?'

-- Steve Tesich

Find a balance between having some sense of general direction for the play while still allowing plenty of leeway for the unexpected. After all, that's one of the things that makes playwriting exciting: those times when your characters take over and carry you off in directions you'd never planned on. [Outlining is one of the many places where screenwriters go down a very different road from most playwrights.]

There are playwrights who don't ever begin writing dialogue until they know all the pieces and where they'll go . . .

Athol Fugard relies on a journal to help shape the scenes in the order he's after. He nearly always knows what will happen in each scene and how it will happen before he puts dialogue on paper.
Edward Albee says he does all this in his head and even composes four or five drafts of the play between his ears before putting the "first" draft on paper.

But here's a middle ground on the Should I Outline? question. There's a big difference between planning where you're going in a scene -- that is, what will have been accomplished by the end of the scene -- and how you're going to get there. If you need the security of an outline, try focusing it on the where your going part and leave the how for your fingers to discover as you're writing the scenes. That at least opens an option for your characters to come up with more interesting ways to get there than you originally thought of.

David Mamet is a bit coy about outlining, but he's very clear about one thing: this business of characters taking on minds of their own and going places you didn't intend is a lot of nonsense. You created these things and you can -- and should -- make them do and say exactly what you want.

Mamet is something of a loner among US playwrights on this point. Most of these folks enjoy being astounded by what sometimes comes out of their character's mouths and the unplanned directions they often create.

Since outlining can end up being a creative straight-jacket for a playwright, a more fluid approach requires that you sense . . .

When To Start Writing

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