Translation Adaptation Cover Artwork: Dried vegetation - such as bark, roots, and seeds - partly framed on a wall.
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Theresa Rebeck: The Craft
Theresa Rebeck Headshot
Theresa Rebeck photographed by Walter Kurtz for The Dramatist

Once you have an idea, how do you proceed? Do you take notes? Do you outline? Do you plunge right in?

I hate outlining. For me, part of the way I think is to write, and if you make too many decisions ahead of time then you don’t learn as much from the writing itself. For me, there’s always a secret subject in what I’m writing, and it doesn’t reveal itself unless you let the writing process lead you there. Because of that, I think the writing thins out if I work off an outline.

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Theresa Rebeck
Theresa Rebeck

is an American playwright, television writer, and novelist. Awards include the Writer’s Guild of America Award for Episodic Drama and a Peabody Award for her work on NYPD Blue, the National Theatre Conference Award, the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award, the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Athena Film Festival Award, an Alex Award, and a Lilly Award. In 2011 she was named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by Newsweek. She is the creator of the NBC drama Smash.