Playwriting: The Structure of Action, Revised and Expanded Edition

by Sam Smiley, Norman Bert (Contributor)

This practical guide provides the principles of dramatic writing. Playwrights and screenwriters will discover these essential principles and acquire the tools to put them to use. Sam Smiley incorporates extensive new material in " The Structure of Action, "a revised edition of the book that dramatists in theatre and film have relied on for more than twenty-five years. No writer, director, critic, or teacher concerned with dramatic writing should be without this intelligent and inspiring guide.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Theatre

324 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 31, 1971

Reviews

[Mahda Purmehdi]

کتابی آکنده از بدیهیات و بی مصرف ترین نکات ممکن درباره ساختار متن در نمایشنامه نویسی.

[Sara]

I knew by page 23 that I didn't want to keep on reading, but alas, if I start reading a book I can't just leave it unfinished. So I finished reading it and I regret each moment of the process. To try and give you an idea why, I will present a quote from the book. It was 300+ pages of this.

“Physically, all vowels begin with vibrations of the vocal folds and require that the velum be raised and the mouth opened; the resultant tone always comes from the mouth. They are chiefly melodic and seldom noisy. In establishing musical patterns with words, a writer can consider the arrangement of vowel phonemes, even though in spelling, consonant sounds are more numerous and more obvious to the eye.”

WARNING: If you are suicidal, this book just might push you over the edge.

[Yara]

So I'm currently one year into my bachelor Writing for Performance and well. When it comes to pure playwriting theory, like JUST the theory part, this book about sums up what I've learned. It's extremely informative. I wouldn't recommend reading it all in one go, like I did, because it is DENSE. I think it lends itself better to be like a guide you can fall back onto if you hit a wall during writing. Because it covers, like, everything ever. It's not a chill read and I had a hard time getting through it, but I don't blame the book for that. Sam Smiley gave me exactly what he promised –a complete guide– and I can only respect that.

[Eleanor Hall]

Just NO.

[James]

I re-read this book, after hating it in college, for a class I'm teaching on script analysis. It has some interesting points to make about structure, from an academic point of view. However, if you are looking for help in writing a play, avoid this book at all costs. Sam Smiley's approach is terrible. I doubt that he has ever written one himself.