“Drink plenty of tea.”
I came across this flavorful bit of advice for playwrights from Sarah Ruhl, from a 2011 interview on The Days of Yore:
“It’s a lonely life. Make friends with other playwrights. They are, after all, the best sort of people as they like to be alone and they also like to be with other people so they understand one’s predilection for eating lunch alone and panicking if there’s no living soul around at dinner.
Send out ten plays at a time and keep your rejection letters. They will be amusing later. Don’t despair if people don’t want to do your work early on. The literary managers who are now reading your work and love it but reject it because the artistic directors don’t like your work will be artistic directors in ten years. Take the long view. Try to help other people instead of despairing about your own artistic failures.
Form a little theater company. Produce plays in your great-aunt’s living room. Take long walks. Drink plenty of tea. Conjure grace.”
I would add, hold plenty of readings and use them to hone your work. What advice would you give to playwrights?
Photo of tea by Oleksandr Pyrohov from Pixabay