Lessons from The Playwright's Process

It is always very satisfying to come across a book that shares the same philosophy as The Writers' Studio courses.

The most recent example is The Playwright's Process by Buzz McLaughlin. It is a compulsory text for London Universities MA in playwriting.

And even though it is about writing plays, the creative process is very similar to writing a novel or a screenplay.
Below are some key lessons from the book that people in our Novel and Script Courses will recognise.

The need to combine story structure with the power of your imagination.

Tina Howe, quoted in The Playwright's Process, said, "I think the cruelty of the form is that to write a good play the architecture has to be impeccable. The form demands rigour and a sense of structure.

"But then the cruel part is that for a play to live you have to surrender control and let your character's go. It's a constant balancing act. The structure has to be right, but you have to leave room for spontaneity, mystery and silence."

Ninety per cent of novels and screenplays are rejected because of poor structure.

But structure alone does make for a successful novel or screenplay. If a story is dominated by structure it will be lifeless, flat and boring, consisting of one contrivance after another. Such stories fail to touch anyone.

If a story is just a case of imagination run riot, it leads nowhere and has no point. It will in most cases wander all over the place and have no sense of drama, meaning or deep emotional impact. Like Arthur Miller said, the plays that resonate and stick with us are the one's that are crafted.

Fiction demands a dance between imagination and structure.
Structure provides emotion and meaning to a story. It is what takes the writer, the reader and the main character on an emotional and spiritual journey of change. It has them wanting to know what happens next.

Edward Albee, who wrote Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolfe wrote, "The difference between writing a good play and a lousy play is the difference between the arbitrary and inevitable. Everything in a good play should be inevitable, now matter how outrageous and unexpected it is."

Imagination makes the writing come alive and gives it that quality that makes people want to read what you've written. It is the difference, writing wise, between the quick and the dead.

Writers of fiction need a process that allows them to combine the power of their imagination with the discipline and architecture of a story structure that takes a character on a profound journey. It is a guided dance, not a formula. An act of guided discovery.

Writers have to let go and trust the power of their imagination.

This is the fundamental lesson of Unlocking Creativity and takes discipline and practice.

Buzz McLaughlin quotes the playwright, Romulus Linney, who says, "There's a lot of giving yourself up to it than being so much in command of anything. It's like giving yourself up to something that's going to take you along with it. And that you're going to go with wherever it goes. It may work out, it may not, but you're going to go there."

Another playwright, Terrence McNally, writes, "Now I don't mean to sound naïve, but when I'm really writing well, I feel as if I'm channelling. I don't feel I'm writing the play at these times. I feel the writing is coming through me."

One thing we're convinced of is that when it comes to fiction, the power of the imagination leaves the power of the rational mind for dead. (There is a time to analyse a story rigorously in a first draft, but it is not the actual act of writing of the draft.)

As Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

Imagination is what makes the process of writing of fiction come alive both for the writer and the reader. This takes passion, commitment and discipline.

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