Tl;dr: David Mamet’s “Writing in Restaurants”

The legendary playwright and dialogue master tells us about writing plays.

Perhaps advice books is not his forte.

I found one useful observation: the play is a quest for a solution.

Many artists, writers, comedians, and of course scientists share this aim as their orienting point: finding the truth.

But Mamet adds a helpful staging. The play starts when the problem has ripened, not too early. In this he adds a great insight. The 2 hours of dialogue won’t develop the content fast enough.

Painting is different perhaps? Maybe not.

Here is checkmate about to happen in a new painting by Tom Sanford: