How do playwrights get ideas? How do they begin writing their plays? What do they do to get the first draft completed? Below are some thoughts from playwrights on how they begin.


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I was in a production of The Slab Boys in 2010. As such it's a play I've read multiple times, and I've been to see other productions of it. I'm going along to see the latest production at the Citizens next week.

In this video by Urbancroft Productions writer John Byrne and director David Hayman talk about the history of the play and what to expect from the latest show.


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Playwright, attorney, new media journalist and consultant Wajahat Ali writes in The Atlantic about his experiences of writing a Muslim-American cop show for HBO alongside Dave Eggers.

"In hindsight, we believe HBO wanted MJ to be “Homeland–meets-The Cosby Show,” but we can’t be sure. They definitely didn’t want “The Wire with Muslims” and they told us that from the beginning. They had no interest in re-treading old ground and we had no interest in duplicating someone else’s nar...
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Bill Morris in The Millions looks at the Best Adapted Screenplay race at this year's Oscars. He makes the observation that only one script is based on a novel.

"But the novel is now in retreat — and not only in Hollywood — as screenwriters and moviegoers turn their gaze to movies based on established franchises, comic books, graphic novels, musicals, non-fiction books and magazine articles, TV shows, memoirs, and biographies. There’s nothing inherently wrong, or particularly new, about ...
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At the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Writers Panel several of this year's Oscar nominated writers spoke about their films and their writing process.

Daily Nexus has a summary of the event.

Max Frye (“Foxcatcher”) likes to take an old-fashioned route via yellow legal pad and felt pen. But when he takes it to the computer, the transcript is, in essence, already a rewrite. The blend of old and modern writing tools seems effective, though Frye admitted that procrastination was still...
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When you start out writing, or bing creative in any way you have a lot of self doubt. You have to work through that doubt in order to get good. One of my favourite pieces of advice on starting out and the problems you find yourself facing comes from Ira Glass.

 
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Here's some more writers talking about their writing process.

Dave Grohl talked to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon about how he wrote songs for Foo Fighters' most recent album 'Sonic Highways'.

The band went to eight different cities and eight different studios. After recording instrumentals Grohl would go out to interview someone. Once he had enough interviews he gathered together the transcripts.

"I would pick out words, phrases and sentences from the interviews. Put those on this side ...
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Script Magazine has an archived article from 2004 with screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga on the process of writing the film '21 Grams'. It covers the initial nugget of the idea, themes, characters and the film's big questions.

"We all know that one scene has a meaning by itself and a completely different one when it is linked to a scene before and a scene after. I wanted to go beyond the conventional, so I went for symbolic choices. I started writing scenes in a contrasting order, so that the str...
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I'm always interested in a writer's process. In fact, I should start a collection of posts with that as a theme. As such the Creative Spark section of the Academy's YouTube page is a goldmine. They have videos of several screenwriters discussing and showing their various ways of approaching writing.

It's interesting to see how their working methods vary greatly. My favourite of all the videos is this one from Oscar winning write of 'Milk' Dustin Lance Black. His approach to outlining is in...
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"Podcasts! There's a million of them and they’re all amazing!" So said Parks and Recreation's Tom Haverford. Here's a round-up of a few podcasts I've been listening to recently.

Song Exploder

In Song Exploder songwriters discuss how they wrote a particular song and play some of the individual tracks the songs is made up of. The latest episode features Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner of The National discussing 'Sea of Love' from 2013's 'Trouble Will Find Me'. There's also a weekly newslette...
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Thinking about my (needlessly complicated) process in writing my play 'Good Times Never Seemed So Good' for this year's Glasgow Comedy Festival, I thought this article by artist Adrian Tomine explaining how he came to draw his first cover for the New Yorker was of interest. Below is one quote.


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