Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Quote”
Over at Medium, Scott Myers frames four questions to consider when choosing a play concept. “I have framed these four questions from a script reader and buyer’s perspective,” he writes. “However they work at the level of a writer thinking about the story strictly as a writing project: Does the concept have enough of a grab to give me confidence …
This is a checklist for a successful premise, from the blog Storyfix, by author Larry Brooks. It’s pretty solid. A protagonist/hero whose life (within a given time, place, location, sociopolitical subtext) is interrupted, disrupted, or otherwise leads toward… (this being the setup of the story) a specific problem, need, or opportunity to which the hero must respond, launching a quest …
“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence. First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish …
by William Carlos Williams As the cat climbed over the top of the jamcloset first the right forefoot carefully then the hind stepped down into the pit of the empty flower pot Photo: William Carlos Williams with kittens
I’m enjoying the book, “There Must Be Happy Endings,” by Megan Sandberg-Zakian. It is described as her “personal odyssey through the American theater landscape.” Happy endings are a conundrum because they so often seem to defy real life. For example, “Hairspray” seems to conclude with an upbeat celebration that racism is ended. While there is something to celebrate – a …
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine is a book-length poem about race and the imagination. Rankine has called it an attempt to “pull the lyric back into its realities.” Those realities include the acts of everyday racism—remarks, glances, implied judgments—that are allowed to flourish in an environment where more explicit acts of discrimination are outre. In responding to these …
a poem by Garous Abdolmalekian There are characters in mewho do not talk to each otherwho fill each other with griefwho have never dined at the same table In me there are characterswho write their own poetry with my handswho flip through stacks of bills with my handswho make fists of my handswho place my hands on the sofa edgeand …
“I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful, and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and — I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and …
The Dark Noise Collective (Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, Danez Smith & Jamila Woods) wrote this Statement: Call for Necessary Craft and Practice, four years ago. It’s powerful and pointed in its demand to create art that is anti-racist and refuses to uphold structural injustice. “We, the Dark Noise Collective, invite our fellow artists of every creed, …
Two years ago, University of Southern California sociologist Karen Sternheimer wrote the essay “Civil Unrest, Riots and Rebellions: What’s the Difference?” In spite of her ironic first name, Sterheimer makes the point that “Civil unrest often occurs when a group strives to gain attention for something they feel is unjust. People felt angry enough to disrupt the social order,” Steinheimer …