Ebook: The playwright's process: learning the craft from today's leading dramatists

8. Working in the standard format -- The importance of presentation -- The various formats -- Elements of the standard format -- Assembling the script -- Getting familiar with the format -- 9. Bringing it to life -- The art of carrot dangling -- Getting inside the play -- The architecture of conversation -- Plausible "mechanics" -- Incorporating objects -- The finesse of stage directions -- As the lights come up -- Stage right, stage left, upstage, downstage -- A sense of place -- Crying, tears, and generally losing it -- Directors who ignore stage directions -- Reality versus illusion -- Practicing the craft -- 10. Your first draft -- A title that works -- Starting out -- Discipline -- Battling that negative voice -- Keeping it to yourself -- Pushing through -- Getting some distance -- 11. Beginning the rewriting process -- Re-establishing contact -- Basic rewriting principles -- Between screen and page -- Another look at your title -- Scanning -- Which draft is this? -- Releasing your child for the first time -- The rewriting cycle -- 12. The ongoing development process -- An initial warning -- The buck stops with you -- The shift from New York -- When to start -- How to submit -- What happens at the other end -- The table reading -- The public sit-down reading -- The staged reading -- Rewriting during rehearsals -- How many readings? -- The workshop production -- The full production -- Do you need an agent? -- Developing and maintaining contacts -- The art of waiting -- The dramatists guild -- A final word -- About the playwrights.;1. Formulating your dramatic idea -- A few initial guidelines -- The basic dramatic ingredients -- Putting your ideas to the test -- 2. Starting your dramatic premise -- Write it out -- Flexibility is the key -- Believe it passionately -- The personal statement -- Negative and positive premises -- How the premise controls the play -- 3. Looking for ideas -- That mysterious well -- The writer's paradox -- Making the play's world your own -- Tapping into your emotional reality -- Exploring the whole idea -- The potential of settings -- The use of occasions -- Using real people as models -- Accepting the risk of self-exposure -- Keeping a journal -- Exploring hunches through writing -- The test of time -- 4. The play idea worksheet -- Getting down the basics -- Analyzing your favorite plays -- Tackling your own idea -- 5. Exploring your characters -- The short-form biography -- What's in a name? -- Your character's physical characteristics -- Your character's external world -- Your character's internal world -- Using the short form -- 6. Developing the backstory -- The long-form biography -- The rewards of patience -- Exploring with dialogue -- The character timeline -- Those unturned stones -- Taking stock, making adjustments -- 7. Creating the working drawings -- Designing a structural framework -- Finding your play in your story -- The three-act structure -- Analyzing the masters -- Inventing plot -- The dramatic intensity curve -- The plot treatment -- The spontaneity factor.