"I always imagined a plot was something you worked out in advance. That was a mistake. I now am much happier getting into writing a play without really knowing how things are going to work out in it. But you’re in control, so you’re kind of massaging your way toward what you hope is a coherent, psychologically integrated story. And when you finish, with any luck you can look back and say, 'Oh, that’s really quite a good plot I invented.' If you work everything out in advance, you’re forcing the play to follow what you’ve worked out, and you will inevitably get to a point where you’re cheating on the psychology of the character. If you let the plot be determined by what you feel is in the character’s mind at that point, it may not turn out to be a very good play, but at least it will be a play where people are behaving in a kind of truthful way."
On Writing : Tom Stoppard: To Plot or Not by Richard Toscan
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Good point about the importance of premise, though many would argue that Egri is writing in response to a very different era of playwriting and dramatic process compared to what contemporary playwrights are doing. But I've always liked his approach.
I think that Lost was written this way... or at least, it seemed to lack direction, never follow up on hints and left millions exasperated when it ended. I, actually, never watched it, but where your way of writing is exciting and can get those creative juices flowing, it's much more fun to not have to sit in front of your comuter all day wondering what happens next. Sorry, if I offended any Lost fans out there...
Two issues here: There are very few artistic directors, playwrights, and dramaturges/literary managers working the professional regional theatre in the US or the UK equivalent who'd sign on to Wikipedia's critique -- though that phrase "sometimes dismissed" is worth noting. I'll happily admit that some of Stoppard's plays are amazingly opaque, but most are cleverly constructed and enjoyable puzzles of character and ideas with reasonably clear beginnings, middles, and ends. In all likelihood he's one of those writers having such an innate sense of story structure that on some level, perhaps even unconscious, they "know" where they're headed. Many -- perhaps even most -- produced contemporary playwrights in the US, and probably in the UK as well, share Stoppard's approach to plotting at least for first drafts. That's not at all to say this is the only way -- or even the best way -- to write plays.
Ha, ha, funny. I actually lived with a massive fan so had to stomach the endless flashbacks and eventual bitter disappointment when it finished. I won't deny that it had that X Factor to hook viewers, but it wasn't my cup of tea (and a lot of things were never explained or mentioned again once the idea had apparently been dropped in the board room).
Plays are MUCH more forgiving with this than movies though. People don't go to plays for their plots, people do go to movies for their plots.
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Dave, you're right about audience expectations. To paraphrase David Mamet: Movies are about what happens next. Plays can be about something else.
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I have only very recently joined a creative writing group and I have been fascinated to experience for myself the phenomena, often spoken of by authors, of the characters having a life of their own and actually 'dictating' their lines and actions to me. It even seems like the story itself already exists, just waiting to be told. I have therefore come to the view that I should 'just start'. When I do that, without censoring or disqualifying any phrase, at least at the outset, or waiting for a 'better idea', then I find myself on an amazing, magical and most fruitful journey. Judging by the very rewarding gasps of 'wow' and 'brilliant' from my fellow writers at our monthly readings it seems to be working for me at any rate. I agree that an antecedent premise can be one way of approaching a writing task but one has to be careful it doesn't result in mere propaganda or polemic, unless of course that is what one wants to write....and I do sometimes. ;-) Chris
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Chris, a number of US playwrights have used the approach you've discovered. In the UK, Harold Pinter was famous for this.