Most playwright blogs lean heavily on the business — calls for entries, submission deadlines, directories, and other practicalities. All important, but well covered elsewhere. I want to go a different way.
This blog is about everything else that goes on in a playwright’s life and mind. The interesting stuff.
I call it Loitering With Intent for a reason. This isn’t a place to grab the latest industry gossip and dash off. It won’t be festooned with links to articles found elsewhere. This is a place for dialogue — for sharing and sparking thoughts. A comfy spot to plop yourself down, exhale, and join the conversation.
The intent is to talk about writing. And thinking. And thinking about writing. And the creative process in general.
Sometimes it’ll just be me. Sometimes I’ll chat with a colleague or bring in an unexpected guest. Sometimes I’ll follow a stray thought down a hallway just to see where it leads.
The rules here are few and loosely enforced. There’s no cover charge, and you can always run a tab. But blatant self-promotion is discouraged — save that for your own blog. And under no circumstances may you behave boorishly or dismiss a fellow patron’s ideas.
So come on in. Say hi. The conversation’s already in progress.
I. Thinking About Writing / Writing About Thinking
Reflections on craft, creativity, purpose, and the odd corners of the writing mind.
II. Underlying Material
Legal, ethical, and artistic approaches to adapting older sources; subtext; emotional undercurrents.
III. The Rewrites
Tales from the trenches: what gets cut, what gets saved, what haunts draft three.
IV. Feedback Loop
Notes: giving them, getting them, surviving them. When to take feedback — when to ignore it.
V. Field Notes
Observations, curiosities, real-life moments that spark creative work.
VI. Behind the Curtain
Inside the process: rehearsals, collaborations, unexpected detours.
VII. The Odd Shelf
A home for stray notions, tangents, and unclassifiable delights.
I was in my fourth decade when I realized that I wanted to be a playwright when I grew up. Prior to that epiphany, I spent years dutifully turning advertising and marketing copy on demand. I could write to a word count, a character count, even and inch count. I was good at it, but, no surprise, it didn’t offer much in the way of creative or emotional satisfaction. (Imagine having your work evaluated on its ability to occupy a precise amount of physical space.)
And then there was that deadline thing. Not only what and how much I wrote was dictated, but when. Or rather, how soon. I longed for the day when I no longer had deadlines hanging over me. The only person who would be allowed to make creative demands and impose deadlines on me would be me. (Hah! Little did I know!)
So now, having finally broken free from the shackles of deadlines, why would I want to start a new project where I’m under pressure to produce new content on a weekly basis? Well…
And truly, who among us has the authority to say a blog must be updated on any sort of regualr basis?
So here we are. What I’d love for this to become is place where writers and other creative wanderers can stop by, read something, have a few laughs, maybe even toss a thought into the communal pot. A little salon. A little sandbox. (No, forget the sand…bad idea.)
A little corner where the world actually encourages us to do what’s most sacred in art: dawdle with dignity. Or as I said back at the top, Loiter With Intent.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
Anybody else make the mid-life leap from something else to dramatic writing?
Share your story >>> via email.
Since I can’t guarantee the regularity of posts, you might want to put yourself on the informal mailing list.
That way you’ll be notified when a new nugget drops.
[ For now this is an informal person-to-person list conforming to data handling standards. I am the data controller; your details are not shared with anyone; you retain full rights. – JM ]
– Peter Brook [ writerswrite ]