playwriting advice | Play Submissions Helper

Improve Your Play With One Word

by PSH | May 8, 2023 | play submission advice & tips, playwriting advice, playwriting tips

In this post, I’m going to share a single word that can help improve your entire play. And not just this play, but every play you ever write. So what is this 1 amazing word? “But.” Stay with me here. This will take just a moment to explain. To do...

What’s your play’s Major Dramatic Question?

by PSH | Apr 8, 2023 | play submission advice & tips, playwriting advice, playwriting tips

Questions are a powerful thing. Questions engage the mind. People are drawn to questions. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that audiences love a play with a powerful MDQ (major dramatic question). Your MDQ could be anything, but frequently it’s some variation...

How To Make Your Characters Sound Unique

by PSH | Mar 13, 2023 | play submission advice & tips, playwriting advice, playwriting tips

After our last month’s post on protagonists, we had someone write in with this astute observation: “If you think about it, the strength and ‘flavor’ of all characters you create is in the dialogue… Perhaps the criticism I have heard most...

Your Play Needs These 7 Elements

by PSH | Jan 12, 2023 | play submission advice & tips, playwriting advice, playwriting tips

Storytelling is one of the oldest art forms known to man. We’ve been telling stories as long as we’ve had the language to do it. So it should come as no surprise that, by now, we have a pretty solid understanding of the most important narrative elements....

Don’t Settle For A So-So Premise

by PSH | Dec 9, 2022 | play submission advice & tips, playwriting advice, playwriting tips

Without a doubt, the #1 most common question that people ask writers is: “Where do you get your ideas?” We get them, of course, everywhere. From snippets of overheard dialogue. From images of a forboding landscape. From a relationship dynamic between two...

The Value of Having A Playwriting Partner

by PSH | Nov 16, 2022 | play submission advice & tips, playwriting advice, playwriting tips

Most people think of writing as a solitary pursuit. We get this romantic image of a man or woman sitting alone at a desk, typing or scribbling in a flurry of inspiration. And to be sure…as a playwright, you’ll spend plenty of solitary time with your butt...

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