Customer Reviews

The New, Improved Playwright's Survival Guide: Keeping the Drama In Your Work and Out of Your Life

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a playwright and a teacher of playwriting, I've used THE PLAYWRIGHT'S SURVIVAL GUIDE in my classes, and as a "bible" of sorts for my own playwriting. My students love it. It's accessible, smart, incredibly friendly, and full of good advice that the other textbooks just don't touch. Why? It's the style of the book itself. Most textbooks are full of information, but very few read like a novel. Gary Garrison's "new and improved" guide leads readers--potential playwrights--through a journey, and it's entertaining. My students feel that they get to know the author as much as they do learn about playwriting, so when I assign it, they read it from cover to cover BEFORE they actually have to for class. A professor can ask for little more. But, as a playwright myself, I use the guide to encourage me to keep writing, and to give me great advice along the way. This is the rare textbook that reads like a novel, has the personality and voice of its author, and continues to inspire me. Gary Garrison isn't scared to tell it like it is, and he knows and empathized with his readers. What more can someone ask--and from a text! I am sure there's no better guide out there for students or their teachers.

Gary Garrison's New and Improved Survival Guide is an absolute necessity for anyone who even just thinks about writing a play as well as seasoned playwrights. Mr. Garrison shares his many years of experience with no holds barred with humor and sometimes intensity. He warns, instructs and encourages with a candor that is unusual in books of this category. and is permeated with honest and no nonsense advice. This advocate for playwrights should be read by all who are committed to the field.

I had been out of college for a few years, and was in need of some guidance, when along came this book. It spoke to me in a way that no other book on playwriting had done previously or has done since. Every playwright, or writer for that matter, should pick up this book, especially if you're looking for a swift, kind kick in the tush. Gary tells it like it is, with his own loving care and unique style of encouragement. Plus, it's funny as hell. Get this book. It could very well change your life the way it changed mine.

I really enjoyed this book. Mr. Garrison has effectively distilled his long experience into a very readable, practical handbook. It's a resource whether you need to get rousted out of a writer's funk or for the practical how-to's of getting your play read and produced. I read a borrowed copy but am now ordering my own as I know I'll want to return to it again and again.

Come on, ... another book that tells you the same things as all the others? It's been done. It's over. Move on. Have a job that fits around your writing schedule, have a space dedicated to that pursuit, don't let others get you down and follow your dream no matter how little those around you understand or accept it, submit to every contest, develop and maintain contacts, read, write and read and write some more. There, I saved you the postage and cost and time you'd otherwise be spending reading something that tells you you should be writing.