How long does it take to read How to Write a Play?
How to Write a Play by Lajos Egri takes about 5 hours 36 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 5 hours 36 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1942. 305 pages, about 83,875 words.
12 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 9 hours 19 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 36 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 30 minutes |
The page count is the median across 28 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Among the many "how-to" playwriting books that have appeared over the years, there have been few that attempt to analyze the mysteries of play construction. Lajos Egri's classic does just that, with instruction that can be applied equally well to a short story, novel, or screenplay. Examining a play from the inside out, Egri starts with the heart of any drama: its characters. All good dramatic writing hinges on people and their relationships, which serve to move the story forward and give it life, as well as an understanding of human motives--why people act the way that they do. Using examples from everything from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to Henrik Ibsen's A Doll 's House, Egri shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise--a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behavior--and to develop the dramatic conflict on the basis of that behavior. Using Egri's ABCs of premise, character, and conflict, The Art of Dramatic Writing is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in writing.--Back cover of paperback reprint.
Subjects: Schrijven, Technique, Drama, Creative writing, Playwriting, Toneelstukken
