Playwriting

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The craft of composing scripts for theatrical performances involves structuring dialogue, character development, and dramatic action
2. The art of creating written works intended for the stage encompasses the formulation of plot, characters, and dialogue to engage an audience
3. The process of writing scripts for plays includes the construction of narrative elements, character interactions, and themes that resonate within live performances

Etymology: "Playwriting" is one of those words whose history is simply its parts. It is a compound of "play," the stage drama that goes back to Old English "plega," meaning amusement, sport or games, and "writing," from Old English "writan," originally "to score or scratch marks into a surface." Put together, the term describes the craft of setting dramatic action down in writing for performance. The interest lies in how the two halves carried their old senses into the compound. "Play" once covered any kind of sport or pastime, and only gradually narrowed to dramatic performance, so a playwright was originally someone who wrote for that wider idea of amusement. "Writing" began as the act of cutting marks into wood or stone, which is why a word for scratching a surface ended up naming the composition of a script.

Synonyms: scriptwriting, dramatization