Glassworks
  • home
  • about
    • history
    • masthead
    • staff bios
    • community outreach
    • affiliations
    • contact
  • current issue
    • read Issue 21
    • letter from the editor
    • looking glass fall 2020
    • interview with Porsha Olayiwola
    • new book reviews
    • new opinion editorials
  • submit
    • submission guidelines
  • looking glass
    • fall 2020
    • spring 2020
    • fall 2019
    • spring 2019
    • fall 2018
    • spring 2018
    • fall 2017
    • apprentice 2017
    • spring 2017
    • fall 2016
    • spring 2016
    • fall 2015
    • spring 2015
    • fall 2014
    • spring 2014
    • spring 2012
    • winter 2012
    • fall 2011
  • editorial content
    • book reviews
    • opinion
    • interviews >
      • Ed Briant
      • Eugene Cross
      • Josh Denslow
      • Christopher DeWan
      • Katherine Flannery Dering >
        • Aftermath
      • Eric Dyer
      • Julie Enszer >
        • Avowed
      • Mitchell Fink
      • Olivia Gatwood
      • David Gerrold
      • Cynthia Graham
      • Ernest Hilbert
      • Paul Lisicky >
        • The Roofers
      • Scott McCloud
      • Jan Millsapps
      • Anis Mojgani
      • Pedram Navab
      • Kelly Norris
      • Porsha Olayiwola
      • Michael Pagdon
      • Aimee Parkison >
        • The Petals of Your Eyes
      • Brad Parks
      • Chris Rakunas
      • Carlos Ramos
      • Mary Salvante
      • Jill Smolowe
      • Jayne Thompson
      • Julie Marie Wade
      • Melissa Wiley
  • flash glass
    • flash glass 2020
    • flash glass 2019
    • flash glass 2018
    • flash glass 2017
    • flash glass 2016
    • flash glass 2015
  • media
    • art
    • photography
    • audio
    • video
    • new media
  • archive
    • read past issues
    • order print issues
  • Master of Arts in Writing program
    • about Writing Arts at Rowan University
    • application and requirements
  • newsletter

Writing Exercises for the Non Actor: How Acting in Plays Improves Your Fiction Writing

11/1/2020

1 Comment

 
by Taylor Blum
Picturevia Pixabay
Ever since I was a child writing “books” in my third-grade class about a superhero cat that shot lasers out of its eyes, I knew I wanted to write novels. What I also learned growing up is that I enjoy acting and the comradery that forms between yourself and other actors on stage. After finally having the opportunity to act in college, alongside earning a BA in English and creative writing, I learned how these skills go hand in hand.
​

The most important thing I realized from my acting experience was how much dialogue affects my writing. Dialogue has always been so important to me–I can’t read something if I find the dialogue unrealistic or stiff. Honestly, the common mistakes of stiff, expository language makes me cringe and takes me out of the story. Dialogue is also something I realized is hard for writers to master. The good news is that when it comes to plays, dialogue is arguably the most important part. By reading a play, you can see how so much can be said with so little words, and by performing in a play, you become aware of your own voice and how conversations work. We’re often told in fiction classes to pay attention to conversations and to eavesdrop on people to understand how people talk, but this isn’t always manageable, and sometimes feels a bit weird to do. But when acting, it is your sole job to interpret the dialogue, to understand how to raise the subtext out of it, and even change the overall meaning of the words through your tone. This teaches you to understand when less is more in dialogue.


Read More
1 Comment

    thoughts on  writing, art, & new media by glassworks editorial staFF

     


    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    March 2013
    February 2013


    Categories

    All
    50 Shades Of Grey
    Adventure Time
    Amazon
    Art
    Audio
    Autocomplete
    Best Seller
    Bibliotherapy
    Books
    Bookstores
    Book To Movie
    Britannica
    Cartoons
    Censorship
    Characters
    Chooseyourownadventure
    Cliche
    Code Switching
    Controversy
    Drag Queens
    Dystopian
    Editorial
    Education
    Emoji
    Encyclopedia
    Facebook
    Fandom
    Fanfiction
    Fantasy
    Fiction
    Fight Club
    Film
    Football
    Future
    Gamebooks
    Game Of Thrones
    Gender
    Genre
    Google
    Google Poetics
    Google Poetry
    Grammar
    Habits
    Halloween
    Health
    Identity
    Insta-love
    Journaling
    Julia Cameron
    Kinesthetic Learning
    Language
    Library
    Literature
    Manga
    Marginalia
    Media
    Mental Health
    Morning Pages
    Multi Modal
    Multi-modal
    New Media
    Nihilism
    Nonfiction
    Normalcy
    Nostalgia
    Obscenity
    Op Ed
    Op-Ed
    Opinion
    Over The Garden Wall
    Podcast
    Poetry
    Politics
    Pornography
    Pronoun
    Publishing
    Race
    Research
    Rhetoric
    Rules
    Sampsa Nuotio
    Scandal
    Science Fiction
    Search
    Self Publishing
    Self-publishing
    Sequels
    Series
    Sexism
    Slam-poetry
    Social Media
    Spoken Word
    Standards
    Steven Universe
    Superheroes
    Teaching
    Technology
    Television
    The Goldfinch
    The New York Times
    Trigger Warnings
    Trilogy
    Twilight
    Video Games
    Visual Novel
    War
    White Vernacular English
    Wikipedia
    Workshop
    Writing
    YA
    Young Adult

    RSS Feed

Picture

260 Victoria Street • Glassboro, New Jersey 08028 
glassworksmagazine@rowan.edu

All Content on this Site
(C) 2021 glassworks
Photos used under Creative Commons from RomitaGirl67, ** RCB **, George Fox Evangelical Seminary