SOSSAMAN

Description

A STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS LEADING BEGINNERS FROM IDEA TO FINISHED SCRIPT, Writing Your First Play BY STEPHEN SOSSAMAN prevents false starts, common mistakes, frustrating dead ends, and writer’s block.

The beginning writer will learn the secrets to effective structure, intriguing characters, and powerful dialog.

This writing-group tested guide breaks down a sometime overwhelming and intimidating task into a logical and manageable sequence. The emphasis on first-draft evaluation and effective revision will help the beginning playwright get it written and get it right.

• Concise focus on the basics—For today’s students with little theatre-going experience.

  • Saves students from making frustrating blunders and false starts, and using inappropriate playwriting conventions. Ex.___

• Reader-friendly—Eliminates dense text with ideas buried inside.

  • Assists instructors making in-class references to particular points. Enables students to easily re-read and refer to conventions during the revision process. Ex.___

• A series of checklists—Which alert writers to common mistakes.

  • Offers students more practical advice and less theory, so that they are able to avoid or solve the most common problems faced by beginning playwrights. Ex.___

• Relevant assignments—Provides students with exercises that focus on the play in progress (not “busy work”), and assures a solid foundation for each writing stage.

  • Keeps students motivated by dividing overwhelming tasks into manageable pieces, and revealing fundamental problems before time is wasted on dead ends. Allows instructors to assign play writing in logical stages, and easily spot problems early—using student work (not famous plays) as classroom material. Ex.___

• Extensive guidelines for revisions—Acknowledges theatre wisdom that “plays aren’t written, they’re rewritten.”

  • Teaches students to do self-directed analysis and revision—critical stages of playwriting often ignored or slighted in other texts. Ex.___

This brief, practical workbook guides students step by step through writing their first play. It covers the process from selecting an idea to doing critical revision and saves students from common frustrations by explaining and walking through the basics. Great as a stand-alone, packaged with other creative writing texts or in drama or acting courses.

Introduction.

THE BEGINNING PLAYWRIGHT.

THE PLAYWRIGHT’S TOOLBOX.

WRITING YOUR FIRST PLAY.

Additional information