Stephen Gregg

I teach myself to write plays, one tweet at a time.

Plays: Trap, This is a Test. Ghostlight. The Neverland Project.

MacDowell Fellow.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

@epfeffin Eric, that's fantastic!

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

@StevenTBoers63 I do this all the time.

[Tom Vaughan @storyandplot]

If you struggle with daily screenwriting goals like "Write 3 hours" or "Finish 5 pages," try something more specific like:

• Write the airport scene.
• Polish Sequence 2.
• Restructure neighbor subplot.

The more specific the goal, the more likely you are to accomplish it.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

@emilysbremer I actually squint when I do it, which is not as helpful as you might think.

[Scott Myers @GoIntoTheStory]

Paddy Chayefsky: “If I have anything to say to young writers, it’s stop thinking of writing as art. Think of it as work.” #screenwriting

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

So much of one's self-esteem is tied up in writing well that writing the first —terrible—draft is actually stressful.

But a good play rests on that crappy first draft. So, to maintain your self-esteem, you have to trample on it first.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

Not an accident that a good story is often described as a roller coaster. The thrill is the same: danger experienced while completely safe.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

Plays (and screenplays) are written one insight at a time. It's a time-consuming process, because the third insight is often that the second one was wrong.

#writingcommunity

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

What you remember about a play you saw 15 years ago isn't the dialogue.

It's the theatrical moment: a character who starts to bleed from her palms, a cow who falls over dead, an angel descending from the sky.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

40 years old. Still my favorite playwriting book:

Backwards and Forwards by David Ball.

By teaching actors and designers and directors how to read plays, Ball tells playwrights how to build them.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

Make your lines short:

Acting is reacting, so the resulting back and forth gives the actors more to do.

Make your scenes short:

The audience likes the change of focus, the way readers of novels like short chapters.

Make your play short. (Please, please, please)

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

"Your best counselor on a story nobody bought is TIME"

[Orson Scott Card @orsonscottcard]

You don't need advice from editors on rejected manuscripts. 

My short story “Ender's Game” was rejected by Ben Bova at Analog back when that was the top market for a sci-fi story. Ben gave me feedback. He thought the title should be “Professional Soldier” and he said to “cut it in half.”

But I knew he was wrong on both points and submitted it to Jim Baen at Galaxy. He sat on it for a year, and responded to my query with a rejection. There was some kind of explanation, but I don't remember what it was. I concluded at the time that Baen's comments showed that he had barely glanced at the story.

So … I got feedback both times, but it was not helpful. I looked at Ben's rejection again. What was it about the story that made him think it should, let alone COULD, be cut in half?

Apparently it FELT long. What made it feel long? Now, post-Harry Potter, I would call it the quidditch problem. I had too many battles in which the details became tedious. So I cut two battles entirely, merely reporting the outcomes, and shortened another. In retyping the whole manuscript (pre-word-processor, that was the only way to get a clean manuscript), I added new point-of-view material to the point that I had cut only one page in length. So much for “in half.”
But I already knew that my manuscripts did not need cutting — if it wasn't needed, it wouldn't be there in the first place. Even the battles were still there, but instead of showing them, I merely told what happened (so much for the usually asinine advice “show don't tell”), which kept the pace going.

Those changes made, I sent it to Ben again. I did not remind him of what he had advised me to do. I merely told him I liked my title, and said, “I have addressed your other concerns,” which was true. I figured he wouldn't remember what his exact words had been. My answer was a check. That revised story was the basis for my winning the Campbell Award for best new writer.

Did Ben's feedback help? Yes — but his specific advice was not right, and I knew it. On my next two submissions, Ben hated my endings, and I revised as suggested. The fourth submission he rejected outright, and the fifth, and I thought, Am I a one-story writer? I went back to Ender's Game and tried to analyze why it worked. Then, deliberately imitating myself, I wrote “Mikal's Songbird.” Ben bought it, and it received favorable mentions. I was afraid then that I had consigned myself to writing stories about children in jeopardy. But in fact I was writing character stories rather than idea stories. And THAT was how I built a career, not by self-imitation, and not by following editorial suggestions.

I did get wise counsel from David Hartwell on my novel Wyrms, but that was on a book that was already under contract, and it was story feedback, not style. I got wise counsel from Beth Meacham, too, on various books over the years — but again, only on books that were under contract. I also received appallingly stupid advice from the editor of my novel Saints, which temporarily destroyed the book's marketability; after that, I was allowed to go back to my original structure and save the book — now it's one of my best.

Editors don't know more than you about your story. They especially don't know why they decide to accept or reject stories. YOU have to know what your story needs to be, and take only advice that you believe in.

Your best counselor on a story nobody bought is TIME. Let some time pass and then reread the story. Don't even think about why it Didn't Work. Instead, think about what DOES work, and then write it again, a complete rewrite, keeping nothing from the previous draft. Find the right protagonist and begin at the beginning — the point where the protagonist first gets involved with the events of the story. Be inventive — the failed first draft no longer exists, so you're not bound by any of your earlier decisions. THAT is how you resurrect a good idea you did not succeed with on your first try.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

The 2-character scene is the proton of playwriting.

A wants. B opposes.

A's tactics usually get bigger: flattery, request, demand, threat, (deception!), blackmail, force, weapon.

B's tactics increase accordingly..

When one wins—or stalemate—move to the next scene.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

@epfeffin Hey Eric, I'm in Los Angeles, aware of the Jeff awards but unaware of the controversy. I shall investigate. Thank you!

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

I'm guessing most people reading this know about the pomodoro technique, named for the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that the inventor used.

But if not, and you struggle with discipline, hunt it up. The research-based secret is in the 25-minute intervals.

#writingcommunity

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

Ray Bradbury's famous advice: "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water."

It fleshes out your characters, activates your scenes. And the character desires you create—oatmeal, a basketball game—create the illusion of a world beyond the scene.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

It's natural, when writing for high schools, to lean into low-tech, easy-to-produce. But schools welcome challenges. They'll stage a stampede or a drowning: manage to show a character flying even without Foy. They'll find the tuba player you requested, or swap in a trombone.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

@andreaberting A few years back, my hubby was standing next to his same-age friend Howard, and a kid across the street said to Howard: Is that your grandpa? Todd shaved his beard the next day.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

If you don't give your comedy characters that people care about, you'll want to light yourself on fire any moment the audience isn't laughing.

[Stephen Gregg @playwrightnow]

Because you were there every time you made your play better, you might think it's better than it is.

Don't zap it into the world too early.

Everybody hates the playwright who says "Ignore that! I have a better draft," including that playwright.)