What’s the first thing you do when you sit down to write a play? Marisa Wegrzyn: Search the Social Security online baby name database for the right character names. What’s the last thing you do before you hit the print button for your “final draft”? MW: Make knee-jerk rewrites that destroy the play. Change it back five minutes later. Then print. Are you conscious of when you hit the middle of the process? What does that moment look like? MW: The entire process feels like one long middle that never ends. What techniques do you use to overcome your own personal writer’s block? MW: Share the half-finished work with a smart friend who will say “I can’t wait to find out how this ends.” Are there any “rookie moves” that you think writers sometimes fall into? MW: A monologue beginning with “Remember when...” usually puts the brakes on a scene. Don’t “remember when.” Nobody cares. Also don’t write complex food preparation into a play. I once worked backstage on a play, and I had to prepare awful food the actors ate on stage. I will never write food into a play that’s more complicated than breakfast cereal. How long would your dream writing process for a single play take? MW: 45 days
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Interview with Marisa Wegrzyn
What’s the first thing you do when you sit down to write a play? Marisa Wegrzyn: Search the Social Security online baby name database for the right character names. What’s the last thing you do before you hit the print button for your “final draft”? MW: Make knee-jerk rewrites that destroy the play. Change it back five minutes later. Then print. Are you conscious of when you hit the middle of the process? What does that moment look like? MW: The entire process feels like one long middle that never ends. What techniques do you use to overcome your own personal writer’s block? MW: Share the half-finished work with a smart friend who will say “I can’t wait to find out how this ends.” Are there any “rookie moves” that you think writers sometimes fall into? MW: A monologue beginning with “Remember when...” usually puts the brakes on a scene. Don’t “remember when.” Nobody cares. Also don’t write complex food preparation into a play. I once worked backstage on a play, and I had to prepare awful food the actors ate on stage. I will never write food into a play that’s more complicated than breakfast cereal. How long would your dream writing process for a single play take? MW: 45 days