Advice

This comes by way of New Zealand, but we are not going to hold that against it.

This is good advice. I should start following it more:

Advice to young writers, by Gary Henderson.

- Stay out of jail.
- If you do go to jail, make it because of something you’ve written.
- At least once in your life write something that might land you in jail.
- Only write things worth going to jail for.
- Remember that once something is written down it becomes fiction.
- Always write for curious, intelligent audiences who pay attention.
- Always write for the best actors.
- Always work with people you like.
- If someone doesn’t support you, stop seeing them.
- Don’t sleep with the cast.
- Don’t sleep with the crew.
- Never sleep with anyone from Creative New Zealand.
- Learn how to write silence.
- Learn how to write light.
- Learn how to write space.
- Remember that once something is written down it becomes truth.
- Make sure the conflict you resolve at the end of your play is the same one you seduced the audience into at the start.
- Your play has one theme. One. Everything else is either a variation or it’s in the way.
- You are not obliged to solve anything, but you are obliged to resolve everything.
- If you don’t know what your play is about by the time you have finished it, you haven’t.
- Good characters will always come to your rescue.
- Remember that truth is stranger than fiction, but fiction is truer.
- Strive to make your writing simple and complex. They are not opposites.
- The quality of your play has nothing to do with how hard it was to write.
- If you don’t have an authentic connection with your material you’re a fake.
- Always place your story. A play that claims to be about everyone everywhere at any time, is always about no one anywhere ever.
- There are no universal characters called A and B.
- Write in your stage directions whatever it takes to convey your vision, but don’t tell the actors how to act or the director how to direct.
- Bad stage directions will keep them on track. Good stage directions will encourage them to go exploring.
- If you get stuck, take a break, stop writing the play, and just let the characters chat amongst themselves for a while.
- Never write for television.
- Never write a play for personal therapy. It will backfire. The audience will always ridicule the character that’s you.
- Occasionally try to sneak a glance at your reflection when it’s not looking.
- Make the most of being the latest hot young thing while it lasts.
- You are as good as the last thing you had on stage this year.
- Become an expert at spelling, punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure. These are the tools of your trade. If you can’t use them you will never be a good writer.
- Breaking the rules will not make you fresh and exciting. Every bull in a china shop leaves the same old predictable mess. Learn the rules, understand them, then subvert them in a way that’s never been done before. That will make you fresh and exciting.
- Trust your conscience.
- Two bits of really good advice can contradict each other. Get used to it.
- Train yourself to listen to music all the way through.
- If you aren’t already, become a shameless eavesdropper.
- Never get interviewed on television sitting in a row of theatre seats.
- Never put off writing until you are better at it.
- Strive to be clever enough for your own good and big enough for your boots.
- Never be intimidated by people who are better than you.
- Never allow yourself to be bullied out of your right to tell any story.
- Never be ashamed or frightened of your truth. Whatever it takes, you must find the courage to tell it.
- Contrary to what you’ve heard, you CAN change the world.