Playwriting (9) How to build a plot

If you can tell a story to a friend, you can write it.

• Introduce
• Orient
• Complication
• Crisis
• Resolution

A lot of my plays come from the headlines, for example, death of Amy Winehouse.

You have to justify every scene.

Play up something inevitable, but you never saw it coming.

Give the play enough space for it to take you places.

Over the next few weeks, I capture episodes of the National Theatre: Playwriting series. These are instrumental lessons, as I work at my play "The Room." The above are my notes.