What’s The Play (Or Book Or Story) About?

by Randy Murray on July 11, 2012

When you announce that you’re writing a work of fiction,whether a play, a book, even short stories or poems, others will be sure to ask, “What’s it about?”

There’s only one answer to that: “You’ll have to read it when it’s finished and let me know.”

As I wrote yesterday, you may not really know what your work of fiction is about until you’ve finished it. Frankly, I don’t think that the author or the playwright can completely tell you other than to point to the work itself. To know what something about is the work of readers and critics.

The work of writers is to write.

Beyond that, I’m not sure fiction is “about” anything. Fiction is best when it entertains, provokes, engages, and pulls the reader or audience into the dream state of the created moment. When a writer tries to make the work about something, that’s the point where many works fail.

So what’s my new play about? Hell if I know. I’m just the playwright.

 

The What’s The Play (Or Book Or Story) About? by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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