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PlaywrightNow
@playwrightnow.bsky.social
I teach myself to write plays one post at at time. Author: Trap, Ghostlight, The Neverland Project, This is a Test, Small Actors. O. Henry's Guide to the Present

Member of www.labtwenty6.com, a Los Angeles Writers Group.
A simple way to up the stakes of a scene is to give it an audience.

#playwriting #writing
November 7, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Reposted by PlaywrightNow
The thing I want to stress to people: Authors (and other artists you admire) don't *expect* you to be scintillating when you meet us, so don't worry about being clever. What *is* appreciated is if you're nice. Just be nice! Nice is good!
But what if I say something completely stupid?? My anxiety is too high to speak coherently when meeting an author. The most I can manage is something like "thank you for writing and sharing your work. It has become my friend and I brought it here for you to sign, please." Then I flee.
November 6, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by PlaywrightNow
Good morning, #5amwritersclub! Writing isn’t about controlling every word—it’s about trusting the next one. 📖

#6amwritersclub #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #AmQuerying #IndieAuthor #AuthorsOfTwitter #WIP #AmWriting #MorningWriting
October 27, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by PlaywrightNow
NOT A LIFT, BUT, #WritingCommunity, This is the SINGLE MOST Important post that I believe should be posted EVERY DAY by every author so teachers and readers shop here first. IMHO steal and repost!
October 27, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Does autopilot Web browsing ransack your concentration? (Like now?) Try an internet block. I like Freedom. Cheap, effective. It helps. (I have no affiliation.)
October 27, 2025 at 10:47 PM
I'm starting an organization devoted to abolishing set changes. Our motto: There are better ways to kill your play's momentum.

Please join.

#playwriting
October 24, 2025 at 5:32 PM
If you live in Los Angeles and like live theatre, go to the website in this article and you'll instantly see how useful it is.

theatrecommonsla.org
October 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by PlaywrightNow
In 1959, an American schoolgirl wrote C.S. Lewis (THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE) and asked for advice on writing. This was his response:
October 24, 2025 at 1:59 AM
"It takes as long to rehearse Hamlet today as it did four hundred years ago."

Nic Bencerraf, as quoted in the article "Masters Degree Preferred," by Maridee Slater in @howlround.bsky.social
October 23, 2025 at 5:43 PM
The longer it takes to write the first draft, the more you invest in it— in a bad way. Write it fast so you can scoff at it.

#writing
October 22, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Useful term.

The Magical Negro. A supporting stock character who comes to the aid of white protagonists. Spike Lee popularized the term, while calling out The Green Mile for containing a super-duper-magical Negro character, selflessly helping white people.
October 21, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Rewrite stuck? Find important info introduced neutrally. Electrify it by using it as a tactic, a reveal, a weapon. (Follow the ripples.)

#playwriting #writing
October 21, 2025 at 12:25 AM
If your antagonist is a cartoon, you drain away most of your stakes. No one will care.

#stakes #writing #scripts
October 18, 2025 at 9:34 PM
If blocks of writing time are rare and you have one coming up, do yourself a favor and find 20 minutes a day in the days preceding.

You don't want to jump in cold. You want the play in your head, questions primed, and a list of tasks you're desperate to start with.

#writing
October 17, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Read plays you just saw and see plays you just read.
October 17, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Start writing. No matter what. The water does not flow until the tap is turned on.

—Louis L'Amour
October 16, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Horror movies terrify us even though we know that nothing onscreen can reach out and grab us. If anything, it's plays that should be scary.

#halloween #horror #scary #writing
October 15, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Jason is important to the history of horror because he's right at the border of the monsters who we pretend scare us and the people who actually do.

#scary #halloween #amwriting #writing
October 14, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Theatre, especially high school theatre, needs scary plays.

What frightens us in a play is different from what frightens us in a movie. In theatre, jump cares rarely work,

Scary plays are about dread.

#scary #writing
October 11, 2025 at 4:32 AM
The best way to raise the stakes of a goal is to show all the different things your protagonist does to achieve it.

#writing #writetip #writingcommunity
October 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
If a shark stops swimming, it dies. Writers are sharks. If the fingers aren't moving, the ideas don't come. Try writing while lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. Maybe, you hope, inspiration will flow past my gills.

Perhaps a sea lion will swim into my mouth.
October 10, 2025 at 2:08 AM
The quiet panic attack:

"This play is too big. I don't know what I'm doing." One strategy: a list of tiny projects. Typos, smooth a scene, change problematic names. When you don't know what to do, do SOMETHING. Even small progress relaxes you, leads to bigger progress.

#writetip #writingcommunity
October 9, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Pixar's 22 rules of storytelling can be found all over the internet. I guarantee that you'll find at least three that are useful to you.

www.aerogrammestudio.com/2013/03/07/p...
Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling
Pixar's Rules of Storytelling were originally tweeted by Emma Coats, a Pixar Story Artist. Rule 1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
www.aerogrammestudio.com
October 8, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Why I use an internet blocker, in two sentences:

I see the headline "Chrissy Teigen's fall from grace" and I'm desperate to click on it.

First, I look up who Chrissy Teigen is.

#amnotwriting #writing
October 8, 2025 at 7:13 PM