Don’t Think Writing Into the Dark Works???
Here Is A Great Explanation…
Sent to me by a friend… Thank you!
This was in a 1923 letter from George Bernard Shaw to Alexander Baksky, author of The Theatre Unbound.
“You will understand that my plays are not constructed plays: they grow naturally. If you “construct” a play: that is, if you plan your play beforehand, and then carry out your plan, you will find yourself in the position of a person putting together a jig-saw puzzle, absorbed and intensely interested in an operation which, to the spectator, is unbearably dull. The scenes must be born alive. If they are not new to you as you write, and sometimes quite contrary to the expectations with which you have begun them, they are dead wood.
“A live play constructs itself with a subtlety, and often with a mechanical ingenuity that often deludes critics into holding the author up as the most crafty of artificers when he has never, in writing his play, known what one of his character would say until another character gave the cue.”
One hundred years later, that is called “Writing into the Dark.”
I also tell people that when stuck, just write the next line. Figure out what the character is going to do and say by writing it down.
Just me poking…
3 Comments
Kristi N.
It’s always nice to discover that the giants of the past practiced the same technique. I used to do step sheets, only to discover I didn’t want to write the story because I knew how it turned out. Now I’m happily writing into the dark and each day of writing is like reading the book. Just had one of those Aha! moments yesterday when I thought I had 6 more chapters to write and the story said, “No, I’m good.” It was surprising, and gratifying that the story knew when it was done, and made me happy that I could move on to the next book. Writing into the dark for the win!
Mangala McNamara
🧡🧡🧡❣
Thank you, and thank you for giving us a much more dignified term than the one that is popularly out there!
Marc Meaney
Totally agree. The only books I’ve ever finished have been ones I’ve written with excitement into unknown territory. Then I had to work my butt off to get the characters out of their jams and to the conclusion which always surprises me. I’ve had readers amazed that the plotlines have all tied up neatly because the reader could not see how they would get out of their situation. I didn’t either… until I did. That’s the motivation that gets me writing.
This is the best advice I’ve ever received. Thanks Dean.
Give it a go. Even if you think you’re a plotter, try writing into the dark. You’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain.