Simon Stephens is my playwriting hero. I’ve now replayed this five times in succession to inspire me to keep going. Thank you for uploading this 🙏🏻

@painesplough

Жыл бұрын

Thanks so much for watching Ben! We're so glad it's inspired you. If you haven't already, you can watch our first Meet the Writer interview with Simon here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/eZ6uqNaFosnAh8Y.html

Super articulate man.

Excellent advice! Somehow very uplifting too. Great to hear someone talk about being given the space to fail and learn.

His advice is absolute gold - thank you for sharing this!

I hadn't been aware of Mr Stephens before this video. He presents the most concise and truthful advice for playwrights I've heard. of late It's not advice for the beginner or novice. He's talking to the writer who needs to keep going after writing seven plays. His words are for the artist who needs to be motivated to write his/her eighth play. He talks about standing on the shoulder of giants. If Newton understood this, so should we. Lots of love to all of you who can't stop writing plays, no matter how hard you try and how much the world tells you to stop -- xoxo

@bobamysdad

3 ай бұрын

As a beginner or novice, I wholeheartedly disagree.

Great Advice, said greatly.

Fascinating and thank you.

This is magic.

what do people do when you feel drained, as if every plot is just a repetition of the past ones one seen, read, thought of and that all work that is being done is done by those with agents, editors and theatre houses giving them money to do what you could but never will, as if you all began at the same street during a marathon but now realise you are the only one walking alone a cold, moist and dark alley leading you nowhere while in the distance hearing the people cheering on all those writers, director and actors that been famous since you ever can remember your first inspiration to get into this field of work but never can find your way back to that main road, to the avenue of light, bight and sun-dried softly shaped cobblestones that lapped sunlight for ages and will make your every step forward a feeling of being a small toddler again running barefoot for the first time and feeling those very warm, soft cobblestones under the innocence of your soles, feeling it to the degree that so vill also the grey old writer in you do, to once again feel the writing process flow within you, but there is that humongous IF in your way, large as a horse or that circus elephant you patted as a kid, if you could only pass it, then, yes then maybe, if you only could find your way back to that first path of your writing life that slipped out of your mind, the life you cannot tell even when you lost it anymore, just as in the same fashion as you cannot really tell when physical maps went out of fashion and was replaced by google maps or iPhone apps.... and look here you stand in this cold, moist and dark alley and hear all the people cheering on to those that already made it on the other side on that main road, the avenue, and just keep that success on repeat year after year as if they had an electric bike passing you by in every hill you ever taken while you now lie alone in a pile of dirt water feeling how you are starving to death from not having ever published anything but stupid articles in news papers back in the days of your first internships that no one even bothered to pay you for and you wonder where did the time go, why did I not move on with it, why am in this alley, all alone can I be the only one who walked into a dead end and is there anyone out here if I scream, really scream right now and right out in the open, - Help me, my soul died and I woke up in this side track of my own life, this is NOT me, this is not the life of my own dreams, I lost it all, I lost what I believed to be mine, to be my future, .... and now I am asking straight out with no fear, please, please tell me where the road back to a life I can be proud of and aspired by lies, because is surely not down here in a pile of dirt-water in a cold, moist and dark alley that I been locked into all too long, is so cold I cannot even feel the pen I am still holding in my hand when I first began to write, and my ink is frozen and my book withered and dispersed into midair, all that is left is a beacon somewhere mysterious deep inside me, a beacon searching for a path, a route back home, the safe shore of a working writer. thanks for taking the time to hear me out, now I can rest and let the Winter that is coming cover my grief, sorrow and struggles, time is all there is left to be, time will let me free. / Sep 3 2023 Kison

Legend.

I'm not keen on 'steal' as it can be misinterpreted but instead be influenced by talented writers who came before us. Always be thinking about what we're up against whilst writing otherwise we'd just be writing for one mind set, our own, and our own is hardly the size of audience a producer needs. I have an audience hanging over one shoulder and professional script readers over the other and sift the writing through them which has been, by far, the greatest help. Be wary of writers whose narcissism is a little too high as they will hide behind excuses in order to do everything their way; for them the audience barely comes in to it. We're less likely to be commissioned, or material bought, if it does not connect with customers; if scripts come across as the writer caring about the me, me, me syndrome instead of the paying customer. We have thousands of points of reference of what audiences like and don't like so use them as a compass; use professional script readers, over years, on each script and they will suggest changes or areas that might need looking at again which ultimately will elevate the material. As we write we learn to sense their suggestions/criticisms enabling us to do something about them in advance then there's less and less for producers/directors/actors/audience to grumble about. I keep asking: what do they 'now' need/want? Where am I likely to be loosing them? (which is often towards the beginning of a story). Where am I likely to be engaging women but less likely men; where am I engaging men but less likely women and a hundred variations on that approach. Be aware of the most important element - audience; what do we need to accomplish to give them the ultimate journey?

Thank you 🌌🦋✍️🐛🌎❤️‍🩹

That’s brilliant advice! Now, where’s that bone?

Playwrights should always keep in mind that there are substantial numbers of disingenuous theatre groups in the USA today, claiming they accept new plays for submission. How to recognize them: 1) They will first judge the quality of a play based upon the race, gender, or sexual identification of the author. 2) They make the demand that the author have an agent. Many talented, acclaimed authors today, do not have an agent, but use an entertainment attorney, or have neither. 3) They will request a 10 page sample of play. Show me a quality work that can be judged accurately with a 10 page sample. Impossible. Intricate plot turns, and complex characters cannot be revealed in 10 pages.

If i were to make a play based on Luca 2021 I’d choose an actor born in 2004 to play Luca an actor born in 2006 to play Guilia and an actor born in 2001 to play Alberto