I major in English, and when I declared, I decided to pick a creative writing concentration because I have always loved writing. When I told my mom that I decided to major in English, she pointed me in direction of have a concentration in creative writing because one of the school I was accepted to put me in the Creative Writing major. So here I am, taking my last creative writing class for my concentration in play writing.

I have taken creative writing Non-fiction and Fiction and I enjoyed those classes but I do have to say that Play writing is by far the best creative writing class I have taken at Merrimack because the writing process kept me engaged and I didn't have to pay attention to describing the scenes that much as I did in my Non-fiction and Fiction writing classes.

When taking a play writing class you learn a lot about the art of writing a play, and it is not easy because writing a play takes effort, and hard work. Here are some things to pay attention to when writing a play.

1. The story needs to have purpose

2. It's not just one revision, it's multiple revisions because you find what needs to be cut out of story

3. When presenting scenes in class or doing a scene read pay attention to what people like, what people wanted more of and what people were confused by

4. Characters need to be 3-D, as in they need to be real

5.Learn how to take constructive criticism well because that is the only way your play will get better.

6. There needs to be some variety of lines: long lines, short lines

7. Only having long lines will make the audience exhausted

8. Be vague on stage directions, because you need to let the actor interpret his/her characters actions

9. Don't focus on adverbs in stage directions because you're telling the actors how to do their jobs

10. Don't be afraid of using pauses in plays

11. Don't be afraid to put your play out there because you will never know how good you are if no ever sees your work

As you can see, writing a play is different then writing a short story or writing a screenplay (even though they look similar). Writing or theater is different, and it takes a while to get the play written because in rehearsals, the playwright may have to change and re-write scenes. I enjoyed my play writing class because I got to be creative and not worry about describing actions and places; I just got to focus on my characters and their development. I would recommend any English major to take this class because it is so worth it and you have free range on what to write about.