Playwriting - Part 9A - Editing - Reading Your Own Work

Once you have your play written (whether it is a full length play, a short play, or a skit), you need to read it. Hopefully while you've been working on the play, you've read parts back to yourself to see how they sound. However, some playwrights prefer to keep moving forward and write. It is important to read your play to yourself to see if you like how it sounds.

If you, as the playwright, don't like how your play sounds, you are never going to want others to read it and you aren't going to want to see it on stage. Make sure that you like how it sounds. If you are reading the play on your computer, you can easily make the changes that you want by changing words in it by typing immediately as you come across something that you don't like. If it is on paper, you'll want to mark changes you want to make with a pen or pencil.

It can be tempting to start putting stage directions in your play when you are reading and editing it. Resist the urge to do this so you can let directors make choices unless there is a movement that is definitely required to make your play make sense.

The thing about reading your own play is that you can do it many times. Most people tire of reading their own writing. Even if you happen to not tire of reading your own writing, there comes a point when it does need to be read by others. While this post has been extremely general, the next few posts will get into more detail about the editing process.

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