What To Do While Waiting


Your script is in the mail, on its way to a producer, director, editor, publisher, or dramaturg. What's the best way to spend your time while you wait for the response?

Fret, Worry, and Stress

Though obviously not the best way to pass time, it is one of the most popular, but truly the least desirable. It is not uncommon for a writer to send out a script, and then re-read the copy and edit and rework the script, ending up worrying that the one submitted is vastly inferior to what now exists. There are two ways to avoid this:

1. Make sure all re-writing and revising is done before you send your play off.

2. Cast your bread upon the waters. Then occupy your time with other constructive and progressive tasks, such as the following:

Research Additional Targets

Submissions will be rejected. That's part of the business. Your challenge as a writer is to persevere; to send your script back out as soon as possible to the next target on your list. Therefore, you need to have a list.

Once you have sent a play out to the most likely target, research additional targets. Like any sales work, submitting scripts is a numbers proposition. The more submissions a play goes through, the more likely an acceptance becomes.

Re-Visit Previous Scripts

Sometimes, after I've spent time polishing and revising a script for submission, I get on a "revision roll," where I feel very good about looking at my work, being objective, and editing it thoroughly. When this occurs, I revisit some of my earlier (that is, unaccepted) scripts to see what new approach or new insight I may have to bring this script up to my newest standards.

Go See a Play

I review plays for a local newspaper, and whether I fully enjoy a play or not, I always walk away with some ideas for my own works. Sometimes they are ideas for inclusion in my plays, and sometimes they are things I need to definitely avoid because they didn't seem to work.

Either way, seeing a play is always an inspiration, whether I say, "I can write better than that," or "That was a play I wish I'd written."

Read a Play

Just as with seeing plays produced, it is equally inspiring, educating, and beneficial to read plays. Seeing the spoken word written down and how other playwrights handled situations and verbiage keeps my own creativity sharpened.

Start a New Project

This is my best prescription. Don't look back. Take what you learned from the most recent projects, look through your book of ideas, and start fresh. A new page awaits for your words to fill it. This new work could be the masterpiece you know exists inside.

The copyright of the article What To Do While Waiting in Playwriting is owned by Dave Brandl. Permission to republish What To Do While Waiting in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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