A drama script in its purest form includes both drama and motion. What you have to work on is character and language. To be reckoned with as Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Arthur Miller, you have to create a strong character and a character who can move the story so that it can be performed in a theater. With a good imagination, a great script, and a bit of luck, you'll be thrilled when your play is over. Whether you're writing a play for television or for the pleasure of writing, it's always fun to try.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Developing the Story
Step 1. Start with the character
Drama is a character-driven work. Basically drama consists of a lot of conversations, because of that your character has to be really convincing. In a great drama, the inner tension between characters emerges externally. In other words, characters must have visible problems in their behavior.
- What is your character's wish? What's keeping your character from achieving what he wants? What's the barrier?
- To develop character, a good way is to think of an interesting job. What is the toughest job you can imagine? Have you always been curious about what job? What kind of person is a podiatrist (sick foot nurse)? How can one get that job?
- Don't worry about your character's name or description. It doesn't really mean anything if you make a character named Rafe, who is almost two meters tall, has a flat stomach, and sometimes wears a T-shirt. Hold on to a distinctive physical trait. Maybe your character has a scar on his eyebrow from being bitten by a dog, or maybe your character never wears skirts. This shows something about them and strengthens their character.
Step 2. Think about the settings
The setting of the drama is the place and time the story takes place. To build drama, it's important to place the characters in a tense situation or location. Combining characters and settings is a great way to develop characters, and their placement in those settings can shape the storyline. If you are interested in the figure of a podiatrist, what if the podiatrist is in Paris, Texas? What kind of person becomes a podiatrist in Paris, Texas, for example? How did that person get there?
- Make the settings as specific as possible. “Modern Times” is not as exciting as “Dr. Family Podiatrists. Wilson, next to West Hillsboro Suburban Mall, south of town, 3:15 p.m. on Good Friday.” The more specific, the more there is to tell.
- Think about what character settings can show. Who works at the podiatry office desk? If it's a family business, it's probably the podiatrist's daughter. Who has an appointment on Friday? Who's waiting? What did they go in there for?
- Think about the possibilities. If you're making a play based on the future, be sure to prepare ideas about how the world progressed during that time.
- If the setting for your play is a forest, make sure you put in the time and money needed to create it.
- Be sure to include a reason why the setting is that way. For example, a tornado that passed through the forest so that the forest is now damaged.
Step 3. Determine the core of the story
The “core” of the story refers to the psychological conflicts that occur within the characters. This is mostly hidden throughout the story, but you need to have some understanding when writing the play. The core of the story will guide the characters in making decisions throughout the plot. The more concrete the core of the story, the easier the characters will be to write. They will make their own decisions.
Maybe your podiatrist wants to be a brain surgeon, but doesn't have the guts. Maybe the podiatrist major doesn't have a heavy schedule, so while your character is still in medical school, he or she can still party until midnight and still pass the exam. Perhaps the podiatrist is very unhappy and dissatisfied with never leaving Paris
Step 4. Match the core of the story with the outside of the story
A bad plot will run in place, while a good plot will progress. It wouldn't be interesting if the podiatrist just kept saying he didn't want to be a podiatrist and then killed himself with shoe polish. Instead, make a dramatic situation and put your character there so that his courage is tested and he changes.
If it's Good Friday, maybe the retired podiatrist's parents (formerly podiatrists too) are coming over for Easter dinner. Is your podiatrist a devout person? Does he go to church? Does he come home and clean the house before the weekend starts? Did his dad ask him to check his swollen thumb AGAIN? Was this the last issue that made him hopeless or angry? What will happen?
Step 5. Understand the limitations of the stage
Remember: you don't write the screenplay. Drama is basically a series of conversations between people. The focus should be on the tension between multiple characters, language, and character development in order to be a convincing person. The stage is not a medium for gun fights and car chases.
Alternatively, break out of the usual theater rules and write plays with scenes that are impossible to stage to explore the writing itself. If you don't really plan on staging the play, treat the script as another form of poetry. Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, and Antonin Artaud were great experimental innovators of drama that included audience participation and elements of the absurd or surreal in their plays
Step 6. Read some plays and watch some theatrical productions
Just as you can't try and write a novel if you've never read one, it's a good idea to be familiar with the world of contemporary theater. Observe plays you've read and liked to see how they turn into stage performances. David Mamet, Tony Kushner, and Polly Stenham are popular and acclaimed playwrights.
You need to watch a new play if you want to write a new play. Even if you know and love the works of Shakespeare, you need to be familiar with what's out there today. You don't live in Shakespeare's time, so it doesn't make sense to write plays as if you were already writing them
Part 2 of 3: Writing a Draft
Step 1. Write an exploratory draft
If you're planning on using “Easter with the Podiatrist” your way to a Tony Award, you'll still need to surprise yourself in the script. You may have the greatest idea in the world, but you still have to actually write something down and let the surprise count.
- In an exploratory draft, don't worry about the drama's format or how to write it "correctly," just let things flow. Write until you have a beginning, middle, and end for the script.
- Maybe a new character will come into the story and change everything. Just let it happen.
Step 2. Try to keep the play as short as possible
Drama is literally a part of life, not a biography. While there's a huge temptation to jump ten years into the future or have the main character quit his job at the podiatrist's office and become a famous actor in New York, stage plays are not the right medium for rocking character changes.
Your drama may end in a simple decision, or it may end in a character's confrontation with something they have never faced before. If your play ends with a character committing suicide or killing someone else, think back to the ending
Step 3. Always move forward
In early drafts, you may write a lot of scenes where it's not clear where this is going. It does not matter. Sometimes you need to get the character to have a long, weird conversation over dinner with his brother-in-law so you can find a whole new perspective on the drama. Good! That means you're writing success, but that doesn't mean the whole dinner is important to the drama.
- Avoid any scene where the character is alone. Nothing will happen on stage if the character is just in the bathroom looking in the mirror.
- Avoid openings that are too long. If the podiatrist's parents are coming, don't delay the scene until page twenty. Make the scene happen as quickly as possible so you can write more. Make it easier.
Step 4. Find out what your character sounds like
Characters will show who they are through their language. The way they say things is probably more important than what they actually say.
- When the podiatrist's daughter asks "What's wrong?", the way the podiatrist answers will tell the audience how to interpret the conflict? Maybe she dramatically pretended to roll her eyes and sobbed "Everything's wrong!" then threw a pile of paper into the air to make his daughter laugh. But we actually know he's trying to make things light. His character would look different if he said, “It's nothing. Get back to work."
- Don't let your characters voice their inner turmoil. It's best not to have a character exclaim, "I was like a man in a shell after my wife left me!" or anything that explicitly conveys their inner conflict. Make them a secret. Make their actions speak for themselves, and don't force them to explain themselves to the audience.
Step 5. Revision
What sentence does the author often repeat? "Kill your favorite character." Throw harsh criticism on early drafts so that a sloppy first piece of writing becomes the great, realistic drama you want to write. Cut scenes that deviate, discard useless characters, and make the drama as tight and fast as possible.
Retrace your draft with a pencil and circle any moments that made the script falter, then underline the moments that brought the play forward. Cut the parts you circled. If you end up cutting 90% of your writing, that's okay. Fill it back with things that make the story move forward
Step 6. Write as many drafts as you can
There is no set number of drafts. Keep writing until the play feels like it's over, until you're satisfied reading it and meet your expectations of a story.
Save each draft version so you're not afraid to change or improve it and can always go back to the original if you want. The file size of the Word processor is quite small, so it doesn't matter
Part 3 of 3: Creating Dramatic Text Formats
Step 1. Divide the plot into scenes and acts
One act is a mini-drama in its own right, consisting of several scenes. The average drama covers 3-5 acts. Usually, one scene consists of a series of characters. If a new character is introduced, or if there is a character move to another place, it means you are moving to another scene.
- A chapter difficult to distinguish. The podiatrist's story, for example, may have its first chapter ending with the arrival of her parents and the introduction of the main conflict. The second act may include the development of the conflict, including the scene where the parents argue with the podiatrist's daughter, Easter dinner is cooked and they go to church. In the third act, the podiatrist's daughter may reconcile with her father, tending to her father's aching leg. over.
- The more experience you have with script writing, the better you will be able to think in terms of acts and scenes when writing the initial draft. Don't worry about it at first. Formatting is less important than getting the play right.
Step 2. Enter stage directions
Each scene should begin with a stage direction, where you can give a brief overview of the physical components of the stage. Depending on your story, this can be complex or simple. This is an opportunity to influence what the drama will look like. If you need to mount a gun on a wall in Act One, place it there.
Additionally, enter character directions throughout the dialogue. Actors may make changes to dialogue and movement if they and the director deem it appropriate, but it's best to provide important physical movement direction (if that's your view) throughout the dialogue. A kiss, for example, may be important to direct, but don't overdo it. You don't need to describe every physical movement of the character, because the actor will ignore such direction
Step 3. Mark each character dialogue
In the drama, each character's dialogue is marked by writing their name in capital letters, entering a paragraph of at least 10 centimeters. Some playwrights put dialogue in the middle of the page, but this is up to you. You don't need to use quotation marks or other marks, just separate the languages by writing the character names each time they speak.
Step 4. Enter the important front
This includes the prologue you wish to include in the play, a list of characters and a brief description of them, any notes you may wish to include regarding stage setting or direction guidelines, and perhaps a brief summary or outline of the play if you are submitting the play to the contest. theater.
Tips
- Don't create characters before writing a play script. As you write, you will know when characters are needed and will know what they are supposed to do.
- Allow time between scenes for scene changes and when the actor takes his place.
- Don't worry about names. You can always change the character name later.
- If it's not a comedy show, watch the funny stuff. People get easily offended by shows that aren't comedies. If it's a comedy, you have more room to say something. But don't overdo it so it's bad. (For example, no racist or sexist jokes. No swear words from children. That's only good for movies. Religious jokes can sometimes be included, but some people can take such jokes seriously.)
- You can write when the character enters the house (the house is the audience). It's often used for musicals, but if you have to, don't overdo it.
- Be creative.
- Think about the actors or actresses you already have before you start to make it easier to choose a cast (casting).
