Playwriting FAQ by Bobbi A. Chukran Copyright 2010 by Bobbi A. Chukran. For permission to reproduce any of this material, please contact Bobbi by e-mail. Since I've had numerous questions lately about my plays and writing, I decided to add this FAQ (frequently asked questions) here. I hope this helps a little bit to show how a play is written and produced.

What's the difference between playwright and playwriting?

A playwright is the person who writes plays; playwriting is what we do.

Where do you get your ideas for your plays?

Everywhere! I'm an observer, an unashamed eavesdropper, an interpreter of people's moods and collector of notes about quirky people I see. I live in a small town, and believe me, there's plenty of material here for a lifetime of plays. when I get stuck, I go online and find a small town Texas newspaper and read that. That always gets me going again. My motto is "I couldn't make all this stuff up if I tried!"

How do you know how to move your characters around on the stage?

Go see a lot of plays, and observe what's happening...the mechanics of a play. Even bad plays can teach you how people move around the stage, how they exit and enter, what they do when somebody else is talking.

How do I know what kind of plays to write?

There are lots of different kinds of plays.....comedies, pure drama, dramedies ( a combo of both), historicals (sometimes called costume dramas), contemporary avant garde, monologues (only one actor), musicals, etc. Go see a variety of types of plays. Some you'll hate; some not so much. Notice which ones you like, and which ones you don't. What kinds of movies do you like? Romances? Comedies? Fairy tales? That's also a clue, although writing a play is not like writing a screenplay for a movie, but it can give you a hint of the types things you might want to write. What types of books do you like to read? There are plays written about every subject under the sun. There are no rules to subject matter.

How can I learn how to write plays?

Read lots of scripts and go see lots of plays--there is no other way. You MUST go see plays in order to write plays. Even bad plays can teach you how people move around the stage, how they exit and enter, what they do when somebody else is talking.

How do you get plays published?

Write a good play, then get it produced. Most publishers require that plays be produced (or "test-driven") before published. My first one-act play, ANNIERELLA & the (VERY AWESOME GOOD QUEEN FAIRY COWMOTHER, was not produced before it was published, BUT the shorter 10-minute version was, and was the First Place Winner in the Youth Education on Stage competition at the Old Armory Theatre in ND in 2009. After that, both versions were published.

What is your writing day like?

I wake up around 8:30 a.m., get coffee, check the e-mail and handle any major issues that need to be taken care of. I feed, water and herd the cats around for a while, then I write. I don't have a set schedule, but most days I spend from 10-12 hours in the office taking care of writing, business issues, marketing, promotion (blogging, sending out queries to theatres, messing around on Facebook or Twitter for a few minutes). I'll take a break and go outside and walk around my garden, maybe pull a few weeds, go back inside and work some more. Some days I'll go run errands, go to the library, but don't spend a lot of time doing that.

Eventually Husband will feed me, and I'll check the mail again or if I'm too tired to sit at the desk, will take a book elsewhere in the house and read. I always read myself to sleep at night; it's a great transition from all the little people walking around in my head to other people's people. LOL. Since we got a DVR (digital video recorder), we watch more TV because we fast forward over ALL commercials. I have not watched a commercial on TV for at least 10 years. What a waste of time! I can record good movies (I LOVE movies!) and watch them when *I* want to.

On weekends, more of the same, and I work in the garden, go to the farmstand, bookstore or out to dinner with Husband.

I'm an author of fiction (or poet, or non-fiction). How do I transfer my skills to being a playwright?

This was a lesson that took me about a year of writing nothing but plays to learn. Plays are different; you're telling the story using nothing but dialogue. A play is not a movie; a play is not a novel. A play can be like a poem...sometimes.

What's the biggest lesson you've learned so far?

My big lesson with playwriting is that it is truly a collaborative effort. The play you write is only the bare bones of a wonderful production (hopefully) that's brought together by all sorts of other people...directors, dramaturgs, lighting and sound directors and the actors. I'm still learning this lesson since I'm perfectly happy sitting alone in my writing room and listening to the voices of my characters.

How do you get a play produced?

I send out lots of queries to theatres, and especially pay attention to theater websites that have Calls for Submissions on them for festivals, readings, etc. I Google things like "guidelines for play submissions" to find these. I enter my plays in various competitions, contests, etc. And no, I do not have an agent.

What does your writing room look like?

After living for two years with the godawful mushroom beige walls that were here when we moved, I painted my room a gorgeous lilac purple color. A plain pine table is my desk, and the legs are painted shabby chic white. I have a wonderful cabinet that Husband built for me that stores papers, notebooks, art supplies, files...you name it. It's also painted to match the desk. I used to have hundreds of books in here, but got tired of the distraction (and dust) and moved them into a tiny closet room which is now the library and cat hide-out. Now I have one small short pine bookshelf that holds scripts, books on playwriting and some of my found objects on top. I used to make art dolls, and have a collection of dolls made by other people that sit around on shelves. I have a small set of bizarre Halloween collectibles and I have sock monkeys. In other words, lots of strange little characters that peer down at me while I work.

Do you have advice for beginner playwrights?

Write the play, and let it go out into the world. Then write another one, and another one. Sometimes it really is a numbers game. You have to get a lot of them out there to get productions on very few. Don't expect to get paid a whole lot for it. Writing plays is like writing poetry; y ou do it for the love of it, or you do it because you can't do anything else and be happy.