There’s a saying called Gate’s Law which states:
“Most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten years.”
I believe this is true of playwrights, too.
We’ve all heard the sentiment that overnight success takes years of hard work, and I think these ideas are both getting at the same thing. Furthermore, I think these ideas are especially true in fields like playwriting that are highly competitive and creative.
Depending on how you look at it, this can be either discouraging or encouraging.
The truth is that when you submit a play to a theater, the odds of them actually choosing to produce your specific play over all the others are quite slim. That’s just a fact of the sheer numbers involved: theaters get way more submissions than they can produce, so only a small percentage of those submissions can be produced.
But it’s also true that your odds of getting produced grow over time, like a snowball rolling down a hill, if you play the long game.
What do I mean by “play the long game”?
* Keep working on your craft. Each new play will get better. (If you’re not sure where to start, our playwriting course provides great instruction.)
* Build relationships wherever you can. The theater community is a small one, and personal connections can go a long way. My main piece of advice here is to forge genuine connections–don’t try to get to know people just because you want them to produce your play, because it will come off as manipulative.
* Finally, and most importantly: submit your work as much as you can!
Submit to theaters and contests and workshops. Get it in front of as many professionals as you can.
And don’t make the mistake that many playwrights make, which is to submit their play a handful of times and then quit.
No, you have to KEEP submitting it, over and over, again and again.
This is how you make those sheer numbers work in your favor.
Because every submission is another chance for your work to break out, get produced, and connect with an audience.