After a production of Post Game Show, a woman approached me and said, "You lived every moment of that!" I smiled. During a run of Throwing Snowballs at the Moon, a woman ran out of the theatre crying. She later said to me, "that's your life, right? You did that didn't you?!" She wasn't angry; she was incredulous.

I love staged readings! I love everything about them. A director comes together with a pre-cast group of actors for one, two or three rehearsals. They work on a little blocking, some intentions, find their way along the through line, and voila: a reading is born.

There's a fine line between asking the audience to work for the resolution and keeping them in the dark to the point of distraction.

I attended a writing workshop recently where my colleagues argued as to the validity of the story arc. They were, in fact, legion. Two of us exchanged glances and conferred at the close of the evening. He asked me what they could possibly be thinking, and I said, "I don't think they want to rewrite."

It goes something like this, "Are we buying into to the Suns tickets with the so-and-so's?" Every season my extended family pools funds to buy 2 tickets for 10 games. Until this year. Granted we had more than one issue, but for me, I couldn't let it be "nothin' but net" again this year.

My colleagues assure me that the best way to learn how to write is to, well... write. And read. Don't forget to read. Good advice on both fronts. As far as the writing goes, "staying in the chair" is my challenge. I can blast out from the gate in a flurry of frenetic keystrokes only to stop abruptly to get a cup of coffee, change laundry, or open the mail. When I give in to this impulse, I'm usually away from the chair for at least an hour. By the time I get back, my characters are taking a nap.

Have you ever heard or read a play and wondered, "Why didn't I think of that?" I have. Lots of times. Too many times. In all those wishful moments, it never crossed my mind to simply pick up the plot, conflict, and characters and walk away with them.

Three's permeate our lives: professionally, personally, and all other aspects of life ending in "ly." To conclude this three-part series, I share the reminders that I take with me into every project I begin:
1.  Writing is rewriting.
2.  Writing a play is as much collaboration as it is isolation.
3.  Often times, when I start in the middle of a story, I find the beginning; when I start at the beginning, I find the end.

There are three things I know about each character by the time I'm ready to write:  what's in their medicine cabinet, refrigerator, and wallet.  Those three things lead me to their job, social life, and neuroses.  Then I know where they are broken, and I can begin.