Be sure you create a clearly identifiable protagonist – the character whose journey the audience is following. The audience needs to know up front who to root for.
2. Create a
Formidable Antagonist
Be sure your protagonist faces a character (or thing) that
presents ongoing and escalating obstacles to the protagonist’s success. Never make it easy for your protagonist.
3. Know Your Characters
as Well as You Know Your Best Friend
The key to successful characters is detail. The more you know about your character, the
more genuine his/her behavior will be.
Think of all the things you know about your best friend. When your knowledge of your characters - all
of them - is as detailed and intimate as is your knowledge of your best friend,
then you will instinctively know what your characters will do and say under the
given circumstances of your play. How to do this? Write the biographies of each of your characters.
4. Be Sure There is
Continual Conflict
The essence of compelling dramatic writing is conflict. And conflict is not argument. Conflict is characters having opposing
objectives, desperately struggling to come out on top.
5. Be Sure the Stakes
are Clear and Important
It should be clear to the audience why the protagonist’s
mission or goal is vitally important to him/her. When the audience understands, the audience
cares what happens and emotionally goes on the journey with the
protagonist.
6. Write a Tightly
Structured Story
It all starts with the story. Your story should have a clear spine (also
referred to as the story’s “arc” or “through-line”), meaning it should
have: a beginning (the introduction of
the characters and launch of the protagonist’s journey); a middle (the
protagonist’s struggles to achieve his/her goal against the efforts of the
antagonist); and an end (the climax, the moment the audience learns if the
protagonist succeeds ... or crashes and burns).
7. When You’re Stuck,
Get Mean
When you’re stuck for what happens next, ask yourself this
question, “What’s the worst thing that could happened to my protagonist at this
moment?” And make it happen to
him/her.
8. Include but Limit Exposition
Exposition is the judicious and skillful revelation of past
events (things that happened before the play).
But include only those events that are absolutely necessary to make the
characters' motivations and stakes and the story clear. And the exposition should come into play only
when the characters need to trot out the information – in other words,
exposition as ammunition. Rule of thumb
on exposition: less is more.
9. Don’t Sweat
Originality – it Ain’t What it’s Cracked up to Be
Don’t knock yourself out trying to find a subject or story
that’s never been dramatized before.
Storytelling has been around as long as humans have, so you’re not
likely to come up with a plot no one has ever come up with before. Originality lies in how you handle a subject
– your spin, your characters, your dialogue, your retelling of the story. After all, what is West Side Story? What is Titanic (the James Cameron
version)? They’re both Romeo and Juliet with their own unique
take on the timeless plot: young lovers
kept apart be forces beyond their control.
10. Care About Your
Play
Write about something you care about, something that’s
important to you. A play can take
anywhere from a year to two or more years to write, develop, and stage. It’s your passion for the subject matter that
will sustain you when the going gets tough.
(And it usually does.)
11. Don’t Try to Hide
Theatre is not a place in which you can hide. The unique gift you have to offer the world
is you – what you think, what you have
experienced, and how you see the
world. Anyone can learn technique. What will set you apart is how much of
yourself you’re willing to share. Put
another way, the best place to hide is out in the open. “Let it all hang out,” as the hippies used to
say, and your plays will engage audiences and touch hearts.
12. Buy Playwriting for Dummies
Run over to your local Barnes and Noble or go online to
Amazon.com, whatever, and get yourself a copy of Playwriting for Dummies.
It’s the most practical, thorough, readable, savvy, and fun book on
playwriting ever written ... ever written by me that is. It’s both a great primer for beginners and an
invaluable refresher for experienced playwrights.
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