The prompts I write are ways to occupy your mind so that you can feel safer diving into the pool of your writing. Some prompts are easier than others. Some prompts are short and others are long. If the first word or phrase of a prompt makes you think of something, start with that. A prompt is not something you need to digest or understand in order to work with it. Start when you have an inkling to start. If you run out of steam, come back to it. Start with something else in it that inspires you. Some of the prompts are completely strange. If you can't make heads or tails of the prompt, usually at the end I have some guidance that will help. The prompts are ways to continue what you are already working on. They are also ways to help you start anew. So whatever your needs are, interacting with the prompt may help. Of course your own results may vary.
If it does help, I'd love to hear about it!
—Emma Goldman-Sherman
Prompt - Self-Portraits
If you don’t know where to begin: Who are you now? Artists often make self-portraits periodically as part of their painting/drawing practice because it is a way of beginning again, taking time to see yourself and where you are. I am not saying write yourself — that is a tricky thing on stage, and I don’t recommend it — I am saying write from yourself. Lists — lists can help you find yourself, and writing comes from you — so …
1) what do you care about right now? list everything you are currently caring about
2) list five emotions and foods and colors to go with those emotions
3) what did you bring in with you today? (list all the stuff that stuck to you on your way here — like: the athletes that ran past you in their team jerseys, and the smell of that man in the train, and the blast of hot air you wish you hadn’t walked into, etc. the hug you got on the way out the door. . . )
4) what noble ideas would you like to write about this semester? (noble ideas I’ve tried to write about: freedom, feminism, fanaticism, agism, intimacy, domestic violence, etc.)
5) what currently obsesses you? if you are always all about your husband’s infidelity, use that as a theme but change it so it isn’t about you — betrayal is a big wonderful thing to write about if it is something you have experience with, you don’t have to work it from your own personal angle — use the theme and write about a different kind of betrayal. . .
6) a list of wonderful/amazing/horrifying/impossible things you want to see happen on stage If you are coming in with a project already underway: what are your themes?
Pick one major theme in the piece and ask yourself — are you using every means possible to reinforce your theme? How could that theme show up in the piece in other ways, via other characters, via other subplots, as counterpoint?
Here is One Way to Begin — write a scene with Characters A and B (either brand new or characters you are already using) and let it be a First Down scene — A has the football and needs to get it ten yards down the line. B is there to stop A.
A is the salesperson trying to get in to see the Boss while B is the receptionist there to stop A. How far will A go to get what A wants? Start in the middle of the action — not when A walks in the door. And don’t forget — almost all of playwriting is a series of layering exercises — we create characters and they have desires and they try to do things and those things are in opposition to other characters with their desires trying to do what they need to do. All of these things happen in a place that is filled with things and weather/atmosphere and its beyond (if it’s indoors, then outdoors, and if it’s outdoors, then beyond) so start by making a series of decisions and see where they will lead you. . .
If it does help, I'd love to hear about it!
—Emma Goldman-Sherman
Prompt - Self-Portraits
If you don’t know where to begin: Who are you now? Artists often make self-portraits periodically as part of their painting/drawing practice because it is a way of beginning again, taking time to see yourself and where you are. I am not saying write yourself — that is a tricky thing on stage, and I don’t recommend it — I am saying write from yourself. Lists — lists can help you find yourself, and writing comes from you — so …
1) what do you care about right now? list everything you are currently caring about
2) list five emotions and foods and colors to go with those emotions
3) what did you bring in with you today? (list all the stuff that stuck to you on your way here — like: the athletes that ran past you in their team jerseys, and the smell of that man in the train, and the blast of hot air you wish you hadn’t walked into, etc. the hug you got on the way out the door. . . )
4) what noble ideas would you like to write about this semester? (noble ideas I’ve tried to write about: freedom, feminism, fanaticism, agism, intimacy, domestic violence, etc.)
5) what currently obsesses you? if you are always all about your husband’s infidelity, use that as a theme but change it so it isn’t about you — betrayal is a big wonderful thing to write about if it is something you have experience with, you don’t have to work it from your own personal angle — use the theme and write about a different kind of betrayal. . .
6) a list of wonderful/amazing/horrifying/impossible things you want to see happen on stage If you are coming in with a project already underway: what are your themes?
Pick one major theme in the piece and ask yourself — are you using every means possible to reinforce your theme? How could that theme show up in the piece in other ways, via other characters, via other subplots, as counterpoint?
Here is One Way to Begin — write a scene with Characters A and B (either brand new or characters you are already using) and let it be a First Down scene — A has the football and needs to get it ten yards down the line. B is there to stop A.
A is the salesperson trying to get in to see the Boss while B is the receptionist there to stop A. How far will A go to get what A wants? Start in the middle of the action — not when A walks in the door. And don’t forget — almost all of playwriting is a series of layering exercises — we create characters and they have desires and they try to do things and those things are in opposition to other characters with their desires trying to do what they need to do. All of these things happen in a place that is filled with things and weather/atmosphere and its beyond (if it’s indoors, then outdoors, and if it’s outdoors, then beyond) so start by making a series of decisions and see where they will lead you. . .