1. I think that many of us (including myself) need to make our short dialogue more colloquial English. When I have read the plays we've written to myself, the English sounds fine, but once I say it out loud I realize that it doesn't sound like something any normal person would say. If we made our dialogue smoother, our plays would automatically because more believable.
2. I also think that we need to weave in parts of our plots more subtly. More often than not, when I read other peoples' and my plays, the characters summarize things that have occurred before the time frame of the play very obviously. Sometimes, I think that we as playwrights reveal too much information. We could allude to things that have occurred without actually saying them. Our audiences aren't stupid, they will figure it out if it's clear enough.
3. We all need to do a better job of creating plot lines that are between being cliched and unbelievable; we don't want to be on either extreme. Plays can still be unique without having plots that are extremely abnormal.
All in all, I'm seeing a trend in my advice. I seem to be gearing towards doing anything that makes a play most believable. I think that good plays are believable plays. If we can all get to a point where we can really convince our audience members, I think we've done a good job.
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