This practical guide provides the principles of dramatic writing. Playwrights and screenwriters will discover these essential principles and acquire the tools to put them to use. Sam Smiley incorporates extensive new material in Playwriting: The Structure of Action, a revised edition of the book that dramatists in theatre and film have relied on for more than twenty-five years. No writer, director, critic, or teacher concerned with dramatic writing should be without this intelligent and inspiring guide.Sam Smiley offers insights derived from a lifetime of writing, teaching, and consulting. While preserving the best of the earlier edition of the book, he offers new discussion on contemporary playwrights (Tony Kushner and Tom Stoppard), on copyright law, on new writing approaches, and on nontraditional dramatic forms.Reaching far beyond simplistic how-to instructions, the book focuses on identifying and explaining principles essential to creating dramas: plot, character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle. Smiley explains these classic topics and provides the modern keys for realizing each element in effective dramatic scripts.

这本实用指南提供了戏剧写作的原则。剧作家和编剧将发现这些基本原则，并获得将其付诸实施的工具。萨姆-斯迈利在《剧本创作》中加入了大量新材料。行动的结构》是这本书的修订版，戏剧和电影界的戏剧家依赖这本书已经超过25年了。任何作家、导演、评论家或与戏剧写作有关的教师都不应该缺少这本聪明而鼓舞人心的指南。Sam Smiley提供了从一生的写作、教学和咨询中得出的见解。在保留该书早期版本的精华的同时，他对当代剧作家（托尼-库什纳和汤姆-斯托帕德）、版权法、新的写作方法和非传统的戏剧形式进行了新的讨论。该书的内容远远超出了简单的操作指南，重点是确定和解释创作戏剧的基本原则：情节、人物、思想、修辞、旋律和景象。斯迈利解释了这些经典主题，并提供了在有效的戏剧剧本中实现每个元素的现代钥匙。