Young Minnesota Playwrights 

in collaboration with 

Park Square Theatre

Tips from professional theater artists on writing a play


If you are staring at a blank screen or a piece of paper and confused as to how to begin, Young Minnesota Playwrights in collaboration with Park Square Theater have consulted with theater professionals around the country to compile these tips for helping you get started. Also refer to the playwriting guide by Professor Rob Roznowski for students and teachers on this website which includes additional tips and exercises for getting started. 

GETTING STARTED:

Ask yourself:   What do you WANT to say to the universe?  What do you NEED to say to the universe?  What, in your mind, is the urgent or relevant or an enticing topic you wish to explore?  Do you have a burning question you want to ask of the world?  Have you researched a topic or event that you think others should know about?  Is your topic from the point of view of your generation? Or your personal experience of how the world works?  Or an event from history?

  • What kind of stories excite you?: Science fiction, love stories, family conflicts, comedy, farce, horror? Tell a story you would like to see.

  • Write about something you have experienced or know a lot about. 

Think about something that you really wish to confront, that perhaps scares you, and that, if you explore it with your writing, will help you feel like you've gotten something off your chest. 

Lastly, is it important to YOU, this play you are writing?  YOU need to be engaged with what you are writing and then the audience will be too!

THEMES/THE BIG IDEA:

Discover a theme that is universal enough so that not only does it help you explore the aspect of your life you wish to explore, but anyone might relate to it. 

Example:

 Perhaps you've been thinking a lot lately about how much you want to get out of the town you grew up in and move to a big city, and how that might happen in the next year or so, but now leaving your family and your friends and the safety of routine is really starting to frighten you. So, you write a play about someone who is struggling to say goodbye to their childhood. 

CHARACTERIZATION:

What does your writer’s voice sound like?  Is it YOU on the page?  Are you capturing the rhythm or cadence or tone of your peers?  Do you hope to differentiate your imagined characters so that an audience will know—even if they closed their eyes—who is talking? Model characters on people you know.

A play needs CONFLICT. Your main character (protagonist) wants something. There needs to be obstacles that hinder their ability to get what they want. The bulk of the play revolves around the different attempts they make to obtain what they want/need/must have. Is your protagonist successful or not? What is learned? What conflicts do the other characters have? 

DIALOGUE AND PRACTICE:

Every day, sit down at the computer and just start writing, with no ideas and no agenda. Write dialogue for five minutes. Then read it back and see what you have. Pretty soon, if you're thinking about your play, the dialogue will start to fit into what you want to write about anyway, but the important thing is that you learn how to write with confidence, and with your heart more than your head. If you do that every day, it's the same thing as a musician practicing their scales.

  • You have to tell the story almost entirely through dialogue. Listen to how your friends and adults speak. Listen to people on the street, at school, on a bus, at the store. What do they sound like? How is the sound of their voice different from you or others you know? Absorb the sound of other voices like a sponge and then try to replicate that in the voice(s) of your characters.   

FORM/STRUCTURE:

In what form might your play be written?  Is it focused on dialogue, or a series of monologues?  Do you want your play to reflect a clear beginning, middle and end or is the form more abstract?   Are you excited about writing a play that has a strong dramatic arc that leads to a compelling climax and/or a surprise ending? 

What about “style”? Is it drama, comedy, farce, melodrama, theater of the absurd, a period piece taking place at a different, science fiction, a parody/satire? Find a style you are comfortable with and write your play in that spirit. 

WRITING PROMPTS:

Sometimes simple writing prompts can stir your imagination. Below are a series of prompts you might try to begin thinking like one of your characters. 

Write three lines that start with one of these phrases. See how they also help to create conflict.

For example using the prompt “ I Am”....

  •  I am so excited about traveling to London next month and seeing the Tower of London but I am kind of afraid of flying. 

  • I am afraid of looking at my phone as someone might be cyberbullying me.

  • I am sorry I got so hostile with my brother last night after we fought at dinner but I don’t know how to approach him.

I Am….

I fear….

I Wonder….

I Hear….

I feel….

I worry….

I understand….

I dream….

I hope ….

I try….

These tips were provided by: 

  • Seth Gordon, theater director/Director of the Hemlerich School of Drama at the University of  Oklahoma. 

  • Michael Haney, Director

  • Janice Akers, Senior Lecturer Emerita, Department of Theater and Dance, Emory University

  • Sarah Hendrickson, Academic Specialist, Department of Theater, Michigan State University.

For more playwriting tips by Rob Roznowski, click here.