- Believe in yourself.
- Don't take yourself too seriously.
- Love the play, not the line.
- Remember there is never a moment when you cannot write a bad line so you're not blocked, you're just being picky.
- Listen to everybody and believe only yourself.
- Read!!!! (Peter Shaffer-Amadeus, Zeami-Nakamitsu, Amiri Baraka-The Dutchman, Rostand-Cyrano[Act II], Anonymous-The Chalk Circle, Ntozake Shange-For Colored Girls...)
- If you wrote one page each day, you would be the most prolific playwright since Scribe.
- If you wrote two lines per hour then you would easily pen a page a day.
- Find a great critic.
- Analyze, don't criticize.
- In order to write what you know you need to know a lot.
- What makes you a writer is not how well you write, it's how well you see.
- The problem is rarely at the place where the play stops but rather much earlier.
- If every line and action makes someone on stage have to do or say something then the play will write itself.
- The audience only sees your last draft so don't worry until the houselights dim.
- Every self analytical writer who I have ever known who has wanted to see their play on the boards has acheived that goal. That's the good news. Most never earned a living at their labor.
- The right word, in the right ear, at the right time, can change the world. Never forget why we write.
Add to the list? Email your quote to edshockleymfa@aol.com
|
