Exercises for Playwriting

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > WORKING > OUTLINE > START WRITING > EXERCISES >

'My only salvation is to write.'

-- Adrienne Kennedy

The Playwriting Seminars are based on the idea that you want to write. And that the best way to learn the craft is to write something real: a play suitable for professional Submission to Competitions and Regional Theatres. This approach is on the other side of the fence from what you'll find in a fair number of how-to playwriting texts and workshops . . .

These affairs usually overflow with Exercises designed to free your creative soul. They often work, at least for the short-term. And they may make you feel better, but they're mostly a lot of busy-work distracting you from your real work as a playwright.

But there is a use for them . . .

If you're petrified by the thought of putting words on paper, you've got a good reason to take the Exercise route. Deal with that and then come back to The Playwriting Seminars.

There are all kinds of ways -- other than working on that manuscript -- to develop yourself as a writer: Everything from seven years of psychoanalysis to working on an assembly line in Detroit. This business is not a science. Whatever works for you, works. That's all that matters.

Having said that, there are some . . .

Exercises That Work

RETURN TO: | Working | Seminar Homepage |