Posted on April 6th, 2016
Writers write and the rest will follow, so find ways to keep yourself happy, safe and fed, and get to work.
This weekend we held our annual writers’ Academy at our offices in London where 21 budding young writers were lead by Stephanie Street and Prasanna Puwanarajah in a two-day inspiring workshop exploring the basics of writing. Each of the 21 writers are now creating short plays around 10 minutes long, inspired by our time with us.
Following on from their teachings at the Academy, we asked Stephanie and Prasanna for their top 5 tips for writers, and we’re delighted to share them with you.
Prasanna is a director, actor and writer. He directed Moth at HighTide Festival 2013 and subsequently the Bush Theatre. His debut play Nightwatchman was
produced by the National Theatre in 2011. He directed Spoof or Die for Channel 4’s Coming Up series and his short films have screened at over a dozen festivals worldwide.
Prasanna’s top 5 tips are:
1) Write something – anything – each day. A letter, some note, a poem. It doesn’t have to be pen on paper but it does have to be a piece of you set down.
2) Concern yourself with why you’re writing a thing more than its structure or form or whatever. The latter can always be helped down the line. No one can transplant in the former.
3) Find theatres and arts spaces that do scratch events/readings of plays/open mic nights. Go along and say hello. Submit your work. Respond to your audiences there. They will tell you if you’re on the right track.
4) Don’t worry if at first theatres can’t stage your plays or agents won’t represent you. Writers write and the rest will follow, so find ways to keep yourself happy, safe and fed, and get to work.
