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Are There Only Seven Basic Plots?
Recently, I had the pleasure of delivering the keynote address at the Gathering of Writers, an annual event sponsored by the Indiana Writers Center and held at the Indiana State Library. My topic was built around a wonderfully provocative idea: there may be only seven basic plots. Seven. Considering the number of stories human beings…
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Why Take a Playwriting Class?
Writing a play would seem to be one of the more solitary activities a person can undertake. You sit at a computer. Alone. You stare at the screen. Alone. You invent people who don’t exist and then spend an alarming amount of time listening to them talk to one another. Alone. So why take a…
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What Playwrights Can Learn from Strategic Planning
Last month I spent a day helping REALTORS® think about the future of their profession. The next week I was teaching playwrights how to build stronger stories. Somewhere between those two experiences, I realized they were asking many of the same questions. Sometimes, people are surprised to learn that I divide my professional life between…
