Copywriter & Playwright, too?

Remember the 10-minute play I submitted to the Rockford New Play Festival a couple months ago?

I’m happy to say it was among the six plays selected to be read at an event slated for August 23.

My favorite play of all time is Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, so my aim was to try my hand at an absurdist comedy. In August, when the actors read the lines before a real audience, I’ll find out if I succeeded.

While I love writing scripts, I’m not quite ready to call myself a playwright. My main focus is still writing articles, web content, and copy for my clients. But there is an incredibly versatile and accomplished writer who continually inspires me by proving that you don’t have to relegate your work to just one or two types of writing: Devon Ellington.  She’s a professional copywriter, published novelist (under multiple pen names), produced playwright, and a scriptwriter who recently had a radio drama produced. Whether she’s writing fiction or non-fiction, Devon does the research and legwork all good writers need to do if they want their work—and characters—to be believable.

Will I ever be as prolific as Devon? No. I’d need about a dozen clones to even come close to her productivity. But we can all benefit from her example. She’s smart, curious, and knows how to spin a tale—but she also dedicates large amounts of time to perfecting her craft. Another admirable trait? She doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

Devon’s a wonderful example of what writers can accomplish if they just shut up and do the work. Thanks to her example, I will continue to test myself with different types and genres of writing—and maybe along the way I’ll figure out why copywriters, scriptwriters, and screenwriters are “-writers” while playwrights are “-wrights.”