The Art & Craft of Playwriting

I checked this book out from the library, but now I must buy my own copy to keep. I've been having problems developing second act story complications without completely deconstructing my original set up and concept. The suggested techniques in this book of asking questions --somewhat like a reporter or investigator would in uncovering a life mystery-- to find the story are unique. I actually found myself with pen and paper WANTING to participate in the questions and exercises. No other manual has inspired me this way.

Jeffrey Hatcher's book is not perfect, but that's not why I gave it five stars. Simply put, it's a good book to tell you the stuff you'll then learn on your own by trial and error.No book can tell you how to write a play, this one included. Hatcher doesn't lead you on a step by step method, though he is a bit on the side of structure. For that reason alone, it's vastly superior to most other such works on the market. Add to this the relative lack of bias against particular works, authors, and style that Hatcher displays, and you've got a good beginning primer on the subject.Hatcher's methods of developing story and characters are loose, but fairly effective, and his analysis of Aristotle's Poetics is far better than Louis Catron's or Lajos Egri's. But what really sets this one above are its lack of formula (yes, "formulaic" is a bad thing) and the fact that it doesn't tell you to write as polemic.You'll learn the real stuff on your own, but Hatcher is a solid place to start.

I work as a literary manager in a professional theatre with a strong new play development program-- working with playwrights is my life's work.There are a lot of playwriting manuals out there, and I think this is one of the very best.What's so great about it? 1) Hatcher is a well-known, prolific, successful professional playwright. His plays have been produced nationwide, including at my theatre (we're trying to commission him to write a new play for us right now)-- and he really knows what he's talking about. He's established professionally and his experience shows. (Two of my favorites of his: SOCKDOLOGY; SCOTLAND ROAD).2) The book avoids the usual pitfall of playwriting books-- the methodical fallacy. That is, the fallacy that playwrights work from step a to step b. So that, once you lay out how a play's arc should work, all a playwright needs to do is plot it out, as if it's a budget on a spreadsheet-- without giving help to how to flesh out a character, how to make a scene interesting.While Hatcher does suggest planning out the plot and writing linearly i (he may be the ONLY professional playwright I know who really does work from an outline; most writers, even the ones who write these how-tos, will confess that they often have a couple of scenes and maybe an ending-- more like a kamikaze mission than a planned road-trip), Hatcher also includes exercises and ideas at the end of every chapter.These are GREAT generative devices! (Idea-boosters). He has great tips for improving dialogue, keeping a scene active, "raising the stakes"-- he doesn't just theorize, he gives hands-on exercises-- which work.I taught playwriting at a small liberal arts college for the first time last spring, and I made this book a requirement. Because it covers all the basics of play structure and terminology without dwelling in them too much, so it didn't bore my acting students (who were already familiar with the term) and it didn't confuse my writing students (who knew about structure but were unfamiliar with theatrical specifics like "subtext").I combined this book with Jeffrey Sweet's books and found that these, in combination with the tips my writer friends threw my way, really covered it all.This book is a great resource, and I dip into it from time to time when I'm trying to figure out what to say to a playwright whose play isn't gelling but I'm not sure why.Not to be missed by anyone aspiring to write plays, and a fun read for anyone who just enjoys knowing how playwrights work on their craft. Entertaining prose, full of examples, and an indispensable manual.

Truly a bible for aspiring playwrights. If you need to read more playwriting books after this, you are definately procrastinating. Read it and go out and do it. Re-read your favourite bits when re-drafting. His interviews are refreshing and extremely insightful.A MUST !

I own and have read several books on playwrighting. "The Art and Craft of Playwrighting" is without a doubt the best book I have come across on the topic. Hatcher's use of modern and classic pieces of drama to illustrate all of his points strengthens everything he has to say. I constantly go back and re-read sections of this book when doing revisions of my plays. Whenever I have a question or a problem about my own writing, I go to this book for guidance--as I said, it's my playwrighting Bible!