Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “advice”
Playwright John Logan, author of the Tony Award-winning RED, wrote: Allow me share the single best piece of advice I ever got about being a writer, courtesy of my friend Scott Berg, the great biographer: “Keep your head down and do your work.” Meaning, do not be distracted by anything but your writing. Don’t worry about reviews, press, your career …
In this writing provocation, director and 2017 Bruntwood Prize jury member Lyndsey Turner asks the writer to consider the unconscious. For all the different ways a writer might approach embarking upon a play, and for all the research and planning they might undertake in order to map out their world before they begin, there will always be writers who write …
From time to time on the blog, I feature advice and commentary from playwrights I admire. Charlene James is a British playwright and screenwriter. She won substantial acclaim for her play Cuttin’ It, which addresses the issue of female genital mutilation in Britain, and for which she won numerous awards. Her excellent advice I found on the Bruntwood Prize site. …
Playscripts is a play licensing service, which has published playwriting advice from some of their writers, as follows: “Don’t be afraid to let your play suck. Let the play stink up the joint. Let it be miles from perfect. Then, very systemically, go about the business of fixing it all.” —Michael Mejias “The most important thing for playwrights starting out …
I subscribe to a weekly newsletter by James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. I enjoy the contents and find them valuable. This edition, he gives instructions on how to be miserable: How to Be Unhappy: -stay inside all day-move as little as possible-spend more than you earn-take yourself (and life) too seriously-look for reasons why things won’t work-always consume, never …
For Debbie Millman, work is not drudgery, or even labor. It’s a privilege. Debbie is an author, host of Design Matters podcast, and editorial director of Print magazine. For 20 years, she was president of the design division at Sterling Brands – and today she feels like she’s just getting started. “I’ve worked for a really long time to get …
In the 21st Century Voices interview of playwright Alyson Mead, I came across this solid nugget of advice: “I’m surprised how many students I meet don’t go to theatre performances, or read plays. Go see a lot of stuff. Read a lot of stuff (get plays from the library if you don’t have a lot of money). And live a …
“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 …