By Barbara Falconer Newhall
What’s the best way to master the art of scene writing? By acting out scenes by the play-writing biggies. That’s the advice of writer David Corbett.
Speaking to a meeting of the Left Coast Writers last week, Corbett described an acting class he took early in his career. “I learned to write by acting out scenes,” he said.
“From Arthur Miller I learned how to dramatize an idea. From Harold Pinter I learned subtext. And from Tennessee Williams I learned character, character, character.”
Thanks to Jon, who accompanied me to the monthly Left Coast Writers meeting at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California, we now have a copy of Corbett’s latest crime novel, “The Mercy of the Night,” in the house.
Normally, I’m not drawn to mystery, crime or thrillers — too scary; I’m a wimp. But Jon likes those genres, so much so that he’s been spending his afternoons actually writing that stuff, a thriller in his case.
As for me, I went home with a copy of Corbett’s book on writing, “The Art of Character.” If there’s one thing I enjoy almost as much writing — it’s reading about writing.
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I had not thought of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams in those terms. Now I will have to go back and look at their books from that point of view
And I’m thinking, hmmm, what would an acting class do for my writing?
I’ve been writing and performing my own work lately. The acting helps the writing! Some sentences seem fine on the page or read aloud, but die when I try to embody them. It’s very revealing.
Where are you doing the performing? Very interesting.