Look at these portraits. Add something about one of these characters to the character you’re writing right now

Try on a piece of Miranda July’s writing process and use it as your own

Put one line from this song into the play

Go to your bookshelf and without thinking too much, grab whatever feels like it has heat under it. See which page it opens to on its own. Read only that page and then go back to writing

Change the rules of time. It’s a play—you can!

Take Alexander’s advice from the last paragraph of this article.

Go to Youtube and look up instructions on how to use a machine that you interact with often. Write down some of the dialogue verbatim.

What do you wish someone would say to you? That? Or maybe this?

Next part of the play feeling complicated? Cut straight to the point.

Pick one of these comics and then use something from it in your scene

Look up the Yelp reviews about a place that you go often. Use a piece of what you find

What would the very low-budget version of your play look like?

What set design do you think about often? Look up the designer and use one of their other designs as inspiration for the next scene.

What is distracting you right this minute? Write it into the play

What if there was no theatre building—no stage?

Think of a play you saw that pissed you off. Why did it piss you off? Can you write a piece of your play that wrestles the thing you hated to the ground?

Dance to one whole song you like. Then go back to writing

What would this scene look like if you turned off the sound? Would you know what was happening based on the visuals alone?

Go write in your shower or bathtub.

Take a walk around your block. Don’t bring and pen and paper.

Read a random essay from 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write

Do a spell. Make up how to do it. Use candles, spices, salt, water—anything you like. Write something you want for your play on a piece of paper then burn it or dissolve the words in water.

Watch this poem