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But what happens if you're still not sure what to do next? Follow these steps:
1. Start Small
Truly, you don't need to write the next great epic your first time out the gate. That's probably what's stopping you - the idea of writing a full length is always going to be daunting. Start small and get a finished product under your belt. Who knows, maybe that small play will lead you directly to your epic. Make that the second play you write.
What do I do?
Write a ten minute play. Focus on one moment, one event, one conflict and write a play about it.
2. Work With Limitations
A limitless pallet will, again, cause more trouble than it's worth. The more choices you have, the harder it will be to make those choices, particularly if you're not sure of your direction. Work with specific limits rather than making the sky the limit. And besides, writing for the theatre inherently has a lot of limitations. Scene and costume changes are not instant as they are in the movies. There are no montages to show the passage of time. There are no explosions or car crashes to create drama. Use limits to hone your craft.
What do I do?
Write a one room, two character play. Less is more. If a third character is dying to come into the room, that's fine. But try to force yourself to stay within the limitations.
3. Work With The Rules (before you break them)
Even if you're sure you want to be one of those absurdist writers with no linear plot, structure or form, write a straight play first. Pay attention to proper play formatting. Develop realistic characters and plot. Write a play with a clear beginning, middle and end. Modern dancers excel when they have practised and understand the principles of ballet. Same with writers; understand the principles of your craft before experimenting with them.
What do I do?
Write realism. Write characters close to your own age. Have the play take place in a realistic location: a kitchen, a family room, a park bench, a school hallway.
4. Write What You Know
One of those rules that gets bandied about for beginning writers is "Write what you know." It's a way to get you moving with your work. If you write what you know you have instant subject matter. So how do you write what you know? Look around you: what's happening in your environment? Write a play about your family. If you don't think they'll like it, change the genders, change the ages, change the time period. What's happening at school? At work? Is there some activity you've done for years (piano, dance, baseball…)? Make your character do the same activity. At the heart of this rule though is finding out what you have a passion for and write about that. Is there an issue, a subject matter, a historical figure that you connect to?
What do I do?
Keep a journal. Write every day and keep it divided into three sections: Character, Events, Issues. In the Character section keep notes on the things that you do, or people in your life do that you could put into a character. Maybe someone says a funny line, or you hear a strange laugh or your grandmother is always knitting but never finishes anything. In the Events section, keep track of events that happen around you that you could use in a play. Lastly, pay attention to larger Issues or themes that interest you or that you have a passion for. When you're stuck, you'll have this journal to refer to and hopefully gain inspiration from.
5. Leave the Ordinary Offstage
Even though you are writing what you know, and writing in a realistic vein, you are not writing real life. You are writing a drama. That means you want to get to the most dramatic moments of your story with speed and efficiency. If you're writing a restaurant scene, start afteryour characters have ordered - an audience doesn't want to watch that, unless it clearly shows insight into the story and character. If two characters are walking home from somewhere, start the scene with the characters walking up to the house. If a character is on the phone, skip the small talk. Be efficient.
What do I do?
As an exercise, take the two characters from your play and have them go out to dinner. Write out a full restaurant scene from the moment two characters enter the restaurant, through the ordering, the small talk, the eating and paying the bill. Then go back and slash it. Take the ordinary out and leave the drama. What do we learn about the characters by how they act in a restaurant? Do you learn anything about your play from this exercise?
6. Answer the question: What makes this a good play?
This is something every writer should know. Why are you writing this? What makes it something an audience wants to watch? What makes it good? If the writer doesn't know, the audience won't either. Always have a clear purpose in mind, even if it's something as simple as "to entertain."
What do I do?
Answer the question.
Write an Outline
Sometimes it helps to write out the story in point form. You'll learn pretty clearly where there are holes that need to be filled.
Write the Last Scene First
Write your play out of order. You don't have to go from beginning to end. Write a scene from the middle. Write the end first so that you have an idea of where you want to go with the play.
Focus on the Characters
The more you know about them, the more you can write about them.
Stream of Consciousness
Take a designated time period, (five minutes, ten minutes) and write. Your job is to not let that pen stop moving or your fingers stop on the keyboard. Don't self-censor. If you have to write about how you don't have anything to write about, write about that. Write about the play or something off topic. Use the senses. Describe in minute detail what you did this morning. The purpose is to get ideas flowing without an inner voice telling you to stop because it's bad. I would strongly suggest each writing session starts with a warm up or stream of consciousness exercise to loosen up the brain.
Stream of Consciousness Part 2
You can narrow the focus of your stream of consciousness writing. Come up with three lists of People, Places, and Things. Pick one from each list at random and then force yourself to write a scene that includes all three. Give yourself a time limit to complete the scene. The most important thing here is to get from beginning to end no matter what.
Change the Medium
Write your idea as a poem or a song. Approach it from a different angle. It will show you how clearly you understand your subject matter.
Research
If your block is directly related to your subject matter go back and do more research on it. But don't abandon your writing! Every time you find something interesting, be it an additional fact or headline, or detail, write a monologue, write a scene about it. Keep connected to the work.
Ask Questions
Who, What, When, Where, Why. Who are the people in the play? What are they doing? When are they doing it? Where are they doing it? Why? Why do they make the choices they do? Why are they making their choices at this exact moment? Why are they in the play? And lastly, why are you writing this play?
Writer's block only succeeds when the writer stops writing. Some of these exercises may work for you, some may not. Writing is an individual process. You have to find what works for you. Any and all writing is good. Just keep at it.
Once you have a draft you're happy with, the next step is to hear it out loud. What do you do when people react to your baby? What if they don't like it? What if they tell you they don't like it? How do you deal with that so you can continue writing and not crumple into a ball? What if you are running a feedback session and it gets out of control?
Feedback is an essential part of the writing process. Plays are meant to be performed, not read silently. They are for an audience, a large audience, not just for you. That means you have have to hear what other people have to say. Additionally, writers can get too close to their work. They can easily miss plot elements. They can think their intention is getting across but feedback may reveal otherwise.
I hate feedback. I receive it badly. I'm defensive, I get irritated, I have even been known to pout. But an outside eye has been key to taking my work to another level. Here is how I run feedback sessions in readings and workshops:
Think about using a moderator
This way the writer is out of the direct line of fire. The last thing you want is to get into an argument with someone! Even though it may sting, you want people to be honest. If they think they're going to be yelled at for their opinion, they won't give it.
Discuss with your moderator what you want to happen in the feedback session. Have a sense of what you want the audience to get from your play, so you can listen to the comments and determine whether or not your intention is clear.
The secret is that you don't have to use every comment you hear. In fact if you try and write your play to every person's specifications, it will cease to become your play. My rule of thumb is that if three different people make the same comment (eg: I didn't believe the climactic moment when John yelled at Marsha over the dinner plates) then it's something to look at and re-think.
Another trick I use is to write every comment down. Even the crazy ones. I don't react to the comments, I don't answer to the comments, I write it down and then review later. People think you're taking them seriously when you write down what they have to say. If you look like you're taking them seriously, they will take their role in the feedback seriously as well.
Take control of the session
Sometimes, people not only want to give an opinion, they want to tell you how to re-write your play. Don't let this happen. You don't want a situation where someone can stand up and say, "You should do this with your play." Have a precise, specific format for the feedback session. My sessions run in three sections: Positive Comments, Questions from the Audience, Questions to the Audience.
Always start on a positive note
Ask for positive comments first. What did people like? Was there an image, line or character that stood out? Warn people at the beginning of the session that they are going to be asked for this so it doesn't come as a surprise.
Make your audience work to give you constructive feedback
Never ask for negative comments. Ask for questions. It's impossible for a writer to answer: "I didn't like when John yelled at Marsha over the dinner plates." What do you do with that? But if someone asks the question, "Why does John yell at Marsha in that moment?" it's a question the writer can answer.
Also, it makes the audience work harder. They may have a negative quip at the ready but it takes thought to turn that into a question. And that's what you want!
Never answer questions in the moment
Even though you're asking for questions, don't answer them. Again, you don't want to get involved with an argument, which it could easily turn into. These are for you to take away and think about and decide which you need to answer and which you don't. This feedback session is for you to make your work the best it can be.
Don't be afraid to ask questions
Make your audience work for you. Have a couple of questions ready to ask: "My intention at the end of the play is to show how dinner plates are a metaphor for our shallow society. Does that come across?" If the answer is no, you have to re-think. If there's a moment that's important to you in the play, you want to be sure it's important to the audience.
Put all comments away for a cooling off period
Sometimes it takes a few days to realize a comment that irked you so much at the reading is actually a valid point. Never discard a comment, no matter now bizarre, until you've had some time to think.
Constructive criticism can be outstanding. Poor criticism can be devastating. Make sure you're getting the most of your feedback session.
Playwriting; A Practical Guide
Noel Greig 2005
Routledge, New York
This is a great book. I enjoyed reading it, which is rare with these how-to books. Quite often, I find there's more talk and less concrete material to take away. Greig's book delivers on its promise of being practical. This is a very practical book containing a lot of exercises to try, written in an easy-to-follow manner. He also includes examples of the exercises so you can see the intention. I actually had to start a second list of exercises I wanted to try with my own writing!
The book's chapters takes the writer from warm ups, to character building, finding the story, individual voice (excellent chapter) to the 2nd draft. I have included three exercises below which I think all writers should incorporate into their playwriting.
Exercise 42 Opening scenes and theme, Pg 44
- Take the opening scene from a classical or modern play.
- Read it through.
- Look for key words or expressions. There is no right or wrong, look for words which seem to be of significance.
- Circle the words in the text. If they appear more than once, circle them each time.
- Write out your list of words. Group like words together.
- Compare your list to others in the class. See where thoughts are similar or different.
- On the basis of your list of words, identify what major themes are suggested in the scene.
Example: The Importance of Being Earnest, Pg 45
- playing, play, play, play, expression, piano,
- Sir, sir, Lady, sir, Lord, Mr. Sir. Servants.
- Science, life, science, life.
- Cucumber, sandwiches, dining, bottles, champagne, consumed, bottles, pint, drink, champagne, wine, champagne
- Bachelor's establishment, married households, marriage, married, family life.
The opening scene is like the intro to a thesis. It should give a hint of what's to come. The first scene should draw the audience in and either hooks them or doesn't. What does your first scene say?
Exercise 66 The Character's Journey, Pg 73
This exercise involves the life story of your main character (but can easily be done for all characters). You are going to come up with a chart of the character from birth to the present.
- Get 10 blank postcards. Number them. Number 1 is the birth of the character. Number 10 is the moment we meet them in the play.
- At the top of each postcard write a significant event in the character's life. (Something observable like: left home, won the state championship, car accident)
- Keep events evenly spread out. Think of the events like items on a washing line. Some events will be huge like a bed sheet, some will be small like socks.
- Under each event answer the following questions:
- What was the character feeling and thinking at the time?
- What were the economic circumstances the character was in at the time?
- Who was the character in contact with?
- What choices did the character make?
Exercise 100 Speech Patterns, pg 150
It's important to give different voices to your characters. Write a series of monologues on the theme of war for the following characters:
- This person talks like a tidal wave.
- This person talks like a village pond.
- This person talks like a snake sliding through grass.
- This person talks like a army tank.
- This person talks like a yapping dog.
- This person talks like a plodding carthorse.
No Horse Town
Just in case you missed it, or want to refresh your memory, you can read Part I of this project here
This play was a lot of fun to write. I went with the idea that the town where the play takes place has no streets and, as a rite of passage, some young men go to the edge of town to "cross the street." A little bit bizarre, fun characters and some interesting ensemble work. Right up my alley!
I don't usually write in a "voice" or with a specific accent. I try to write neutrally. But when I wrote the initial dialogue, it just seemed to come out with that very specific speech rhythm. One of the things I love about writing is that sometimes plays just come out in a certain way. It's hard to explain, I'm not sure that I could adequately. But I do know that it's always better to embrace my instincts rather than fight them. So, even though I don't write characters in such a way, I knew that it was good for the play and it became a great challenge to continue writing the rest within that voice. But of course my absurd, Brechtian background reared its head anyway - the sister completely breaks from the set speech pattern when she analyizes Jimmy. The stranger also breaks from that rhythm. I like it though because it creates a variety of speech patterns.
The hardest part was finding a way to convey to the audience how the town became a place with no streets. Initially I didn't have the stranger enter until the very end of the play - someone who just crossed the street in a very nonchalant way. I thought about having the stranger be new in town and they explain the story to her. I thought about having one of the triplets being the town newspaper reporter and getting the information out that way.
In the end, I decided that the play is already slightly bizarre and why not take another step toward crazy town with a presentation of sorts which explains the history of the town, which the townspeople perform for the stranger.
I've included three links. The first is a hand-written page, just to give you an look at my creative process. I know, it looks scary. I never create on the computer, I always handwrite the play first. As you can see, it looks like a mess! At this stage, it's just getting the ideas out of my head and onto the page. I'm not looking for perfect formating, I'm not looking for the perfect dialogue or the best storyline. You'll see different character names, lines that aren't in the finished draft, ideas that caught me halfway through so I had to write a line off to the side. I try to reject as little as possible and that way I have a lot to work with.
The second link is the first pass on computer. I try not to get hung up on sections that I'm not clear on. You'll see gaps, typos, dialogue that doesn't have characters attached to it. The Eugene section is a huge, almost stream of consciousness paragraph. Again, it's important to keep moving with the work. This is how I prevent writer's block. When I get to a sticky spot, such as how I was going to get the town's history out, I try to sidestep it and keep moving forward. It's extremely hard to do at times. It's easy to get bogged down. But once I have a draft of sorts I can print it out and then examine each section. I go back to pen and paper and tackle the problems one by one.
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Past topics have included: Monologues, The Creative Process, Scene Work, Improvisation, and Shakespeare.
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