By Rachael Bull, writing center tutor

Playwriting is a unique genre we often miss when we talk about creative writing in the Writing Center. The reasons for this gap boil down to a lack of familiarity. Traditionally, playwriting has been kept separate from creative writing, sequestered in theatre departments. This is certainly true for us at Ball State: our creative writing courses cover fiction, short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, and even screenwriting, but not playwriting. I’m not an expert on playwriting, but I do have three strategies for helping playwrights based on what my playwright friends have considered helpful.

Three Strategies for playwriting

Find the Big Question:

What big question is this play answering? What themes does the playwright want to address? Like any creative work, a good play will have a central theme at its heart. Ask the playwright to identify questions and themes and walk you through their development in the play. Specifically, we are looking for the Major Dramatic Question here, the question driving the narrative and action of the play.

Phone a Friend:

In playwriting, hearing the work read (or acted) is crucial for the playwright to revise. If other tutors are available and willing to help out, ask them to join you to do a table reading of the play script. Assign speaking parts to the tutors, and have the playwright read their stage directions. Usually, the script will not be read by the audience, only by actors or others involved in producing the play. Your job here is to consider your role as an actor.

Ask Questions:

This one should come easy to us as Writing Center tutors. Identify what you understand is happening in the play script, and then ask the playwright questions about the script or about specific choices they made. This is backwards from how creative writing workshops usually function because the audience and the actors are co-participants in creating the play, and their understanding of the action is incredibly important. You don’t have to understand theatre to ask good questions!

Plays require a significant amount of collaboration for revision. Often a playwright will continue working on a play script until the play’s opening night and even beyond, making adjustments to the script and to stage directions and to notes. The play script is not the final product, it is a step towards the play as the product.

Remember the Writing Center is also available to help support your writing. This summer, we are offering all our daytime and evening appointments (Mon.-Thurs. 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.) online. Visit our website (bsu.edu/writingcenter) to make your appointment today. We can’t wait to see you in the Writing Center!