Playwriting: A Manual for Beginners

This book was written by a high-school teacher specifically for beginning playwrights. Writers who wish to tackle a play will find the down-to-earth language, step-by-step process and streamlined directions easy to follow. Writing exercises at the end of each chapter stretch creativity and develop writing skills unique to play writing. Teachers can use this classroom-tested book as the basis of an entire course, pull chapters from it for smaller units within a larger course or hand the book to independent study students to follow at their own pace. The book's eight chapters show the writer how to come up with an idea, how to create characters, how to organize a plot, how to write natural sounding dialogue, how to format a script and where to market a finished play. Appendices include a theatre glossary and a suggested reading list. 6x9—64 pages.