Write Who You Know

When I was in college studying screenwriting, I took some theatre classes including playwriting. I was new to the theatre scene and hadn't read very many plays, so, naturally, the first one-act I wrote was a bit of a disaster. I recall my professor rubbing the hell out of his eyes below his receding hairline while he tried to talk to me about its poor quality. As a fan of Rushmore, however, I had my heart set on being a decent playwright. So, I read loads of plays, my favorites being that of Edward Albee, and I took another shot at writing a play. I succeeded! My professor praised me! My peers accepted me! Here is how I did it: I dramatized my relationship to a friend who I had a rocky patch with and mixed in some funny bits from the relationships of other friends.

The next semester I received an email informing me that my one-act play had been chosen to be performed for the Meet the Playwrights Gala. I hadn't even submitted it, but here I was. I had arrived at gala status! The only problem was that my friend who I sort of wrote about attended the gala and knew it was about him. All of our friends knew. It was awkward. I probably made him seem extra weird and myself extra awesome.

Screenwriters, playwrights, novelists, comedians, etc. write about people they know and I always ponder what moral issues and relationships are at stake when that information goes public. Maybe it's lazy for a screenwriter to base a character too much on someone they know. While my thoughts are inconclusive, I think it's an important dialogue to have with yourself and maybe with your writers group.

And with that, I'm headed to Indiana to hang out with my family that won't let me write about them.