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>I write plays for a hobby, so I thought I’d take a look at what he did. Call it a sick fascination, but I was curious.....Beginning playwrights (especially young ones) nearly always have a character based on themselves.<

Maybe. I’ve been writing since I was a sophomore in high school, and I’ve never based a character on myself. Creative writing requires imagination, empathy, acute senses, a love of words, a dose of mysticism, vision, and a story to tell. It doesn’t necessarily follow that the shooter had actually been a victim. He could have based his play on a situation he’d heard about in the news, which intrigued him. He was no kid.

Creative writing requires imagination, empathy, acute senses, a love of words, a dose of mysticism, vision, and a story to tell.

The main thing about his "play" is that it's awful, childish garbage. There IS no imagination, empathy, love of words (except very unimaginative profanity), and no story. It's nonsense. There is no characterization, no plot, no description. He should have been flunked out a long time ago. It will be interesting to read his whole history. Most seniors are younger than 23; most Asians don't waste their time majoring in English and writing drivel. Something is missing here.

I write plays for a hobby, so I thought I’d take a look at what he did. Call it a sick fascination, but I was curious.....Beginning playwrights (especially young ones) nearly always have a character based on themselves.

Maybe. I’ve been writing since I was a sophomore in high school, and I’ve never based a character on myself. Creative writing requires imagination, empathy, acute senses, a love of words, a dose of mysticism, vision, and a story to tell. It doesn’t necessarily follow that the shooter had actually been a victim. He could have based his play on a situation he’d heard about in the news, which intrigued him. He was no kid.

That's a possibility. I'm making my educated guess based on ten years of reading scripts of other playwrights.

The younger writers have a tendency to put forth the message that "my life matters." They write about themselves and their friends for the most part.

One reason I didn't think he was writing about other people was that the play lacks multiple perspectives on the action. John screams, but we get no sense of how the other characters feel about John's screaming. It's only the perspective of John, which suggests a certain self-obsession on the part of the writer.

But I'm just guessing here.