An Introduction to Play-Writing Books
Literature on the Craft of Play-Writing and Art of Dramatic Writing
Wanting to write a play and knowing how to write a play are two very different things. The budding playwright may not know how to design a plot or how to create great characters. Or the writer may not know how to format their script or how to write a great ending. These two books are a good starting point and will answer most questions a new writer might want to ask.
The Art and Craft of Play-writing by Jeffrey Hatcher
The Art and Craft of Play-writing by Jeffrey Hatcher is a very good book for the beginning playwright because it deals with the whole spectrum of great narrative writing starting with Aristotle’s Six Elements of Drama and ending with actual interviews and case studies with contemporary playwrights.
The book uses numerous examples from contemporary and classic stage drama. Beginners will get a gain a great deal of knowledge from the case study of Ibsen’s classic Hedda Gabler. This case study illustrates one of the most central concepts of play-writing and that is how character motivation is used to drive the plot.
The Art and Craft of Play-writing also features different creative exercises at the beginning of each chapter which help stimulate creativity and are very useful at generating ideas. If a writer doesn’t have an idea for a play before they read this book then they certainly will after.
One of the books most useful chapters for the beginning playwright is entitled...
Getting the Great Idea and Turning it into a Play
This chapter helps a writer analyse that nugget of inspiration and ask “would this make a good play?” and if so how would I effectively bring the story to the stage.
The strongest aspect of The Art and Craft of Play-writing, however, is how it captures the excitement of writing. After reading this book most writers will be sprinting to their computers to get started.
The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri
The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri is very different to The Art and Craft of Play-writing. It is written in a much more complicated and scholarly style and its focus is a lot more on character design; its subtitle being “the creative interpretation of human motives”. Lajos Egri delves into the roots of human motivation and illustrates how these can translate to the stage.
Egri also examines all the common mistakes that can make a play just not work. Such as a poor premise or a passive protagonist. The Art of Dramatic Writing is a great manual not just for Playwrights but for novelists and screenwriters because its fundamental theories on character and plot design are universal to great story telling.
Other suite 101 articles in Writing for Stage/Screen that the starting out playwright may find useful are How to Write a First Play and Aristotle and the Definition of Tragedy in Drama.
"if it ain't on the page it ain't on the stage"
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