Oct-Nov is the time of year when I get a lot of emails from ppl applying to certain programs and fellowships. A few years ago someone was asked me to read their play b/c they wanted to get a fellowship. So I read it. The play was...fine. I told him the play was steady, sturdy, well-made and something he shouldn't submit. He was upset. Was I implying that he wasn't a worthy writer? No. The play was good but it was also a work that could have been written by 100 other middle-of-the-road guys. There was nothing distinctive about it. It was the sort of play you might see from a mid-career writer who was coasting off reputation. It was okay. As someone who has been reader for various fellowships, the 'okay' play usually gets either a mild grade or a pass from me.
What a lot of these fellowships and contests want is a confident voice: this means unique dialogue, distinctive characters that have a certain intimate connection to the writer, and a world-building/mythology. Usually, a writer who has all 3 will stick out, but 2 out of 3 is still very good. Someone with an uneven but unique voice will win 99% of the time over a well-made writer cranking out work that could have been written by a committee.
Usually, a writer's style leans one way: either more toward world-building/mythology OR toward crackerjack dialogue and characters that pop from personal experience. When you pick out your submission play consider these question: could this play have been written by anybody but me? If so, why? Is there any work in my repertoire that is so 'me' in tone, world, characters that I am the only one who could have written it? Then that's the play to submit.
What a lot of these fellowships and contests want is a confident voice: this means unique dialogue, distinctive characters that have a certain intimate connection to the writer, and a world-building/mythology. Usually, a writer who has all 3 will stick out, but 2 out of 3 is still very good. Someone with an uneven but unique voice will win 99% of the time over a well-made writer cranking out work that could have been written by a committee.
Usually, a writer's style leans one way: either more toward world-building/mythology OR toward crackerjack dialogue and characters that pop from personal experience. When you pick out your submission play consider these question: could this play have been written by anybody but me? If so, why? Is there any work in my repertoire that is so 'me' in tone, world, characters that I am the only one who could have written it? Then that's the play to submit.
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