Waubonsee Community College

The dramatic writer's companion, tools to develop characters, cause scenes, and build stories, Will Dunne

eng

no index present

non fiction

The dramatic writer's companion

988580662

Will Dunne

Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing

tools to develop characters, cause scenes, and build stories

just one but seven different levels of summary., What's the Big Idea?, As you review your script, you will probably find a number of themes woven throughout., Use this focusing exercise to figure out which of these ideas is most important, and develop a theme statement that can help guide the rest of story development., What's in a Name?, This exercise might help you find a great title for your story, but its primary purpose is to use the naming process to explore the big picture of your story and figure out what matters most., The Forest of Your Story, The forest is what we discover when we can finally see more than just the trees., What is the forest of your story? This summary exercise leads you through a detailed big-picture analysis of your material., Ready, Aim, Focus, This focusing exercise asks you to think a lot but write only a little as you give one-word answers to big questions about your story, such as "What does your main character most want?", Six Steps of Revision, The revision process is often when a script gets "written.", This exercise offers a series of suggestions and reminders to help you review a completed draft of your script., Use exercises from this guide to address such problems as False Character, Unnecessary Character, No One to Care About, Not Clear What the Character Wants, Not Enough Conflict, Not Enough at Stake, False Starts and Stops, Strategy Gone Stale, Retrospective Elucidation, Punches That Don't Land, Nothing Happening, Something Happening, but It Doesn't Matter, Lack of Focus Early On, Main Character Too Passive or Missing in Action, Offstage More Interesting Than Onstage, Weak Throughline, A Crisis That Isn't, Not Clear What Happened in the Story, A Theme That Isn't, and Way Too Many Wordsweaknesses., Use the traditional seven deadly sins to develop capsule portraits of your characters., The Dramatic Triangle, In a relationship between two characters, there is often a third party affecting what happens between them-even if the third party is not physically present., Learn more about a key relationship by analyzing it as a dramatic triangle., Spinal Tap, The spine of the character is the root action from which all of the character's other actions flow., This big-picture exercise helps you explore a character's spine and use it to trigger new story ideas., Character as Paradox, Fascinating characters tend to manifest contradictory traits and behaviors., By exploring your character as a paradox-a self-contradiction which is true-you can add to his or her complexity and generate new ideas for story action., The Character You Like Least, To develop any character, you need to understand how he or she experiences the world., Try this character exploration if you find yourself with a two-dimensional "bad guy" whom you are having trouble writing., In So Many Words, This exercise helps you establish a big-picture view of your character and then gradually focus in on his or her most important characteristics., Stage 1, Making Things Happen, Basic Scene Starter, This simple writing warm-up offers twelve basic questions that can help you prepare to write any dramatic scene., Where in the World Are We?, The setting for a scene can be a rich source of story ideas if you take the time to discover what's there., This physical life exercise guides you through a visceral exploration of the place where a scene will occur., The Roots of Action, Explore the given circumstances for a scene and use this scenic context to fuel the emotions, thoughts, needs, and behavior of your characters at this particular time in your story., What Does the Character Want?, Dramatic characters act for one reason: they want something., Explore five types of objectives and figure out what specifically your character wants in any scene of your story., What's the Problem?, Conflict in drama is obstacle. Explore different types of obstacles that your character might have to face while pursuing a scenic objective., Good Intentions, Right or wrong, characters act in pursuit of what they perceive to be good at the time., Find the good intentions behind even the worst behavior so that you can better understand the characters you write., How It Happens, Characters try different strategies-some planned, some spontaneous-to achieve their objectives., This exercise helps you figure out the beginning steps of character action in a scene., Character Adjustments, Your character has a certain observable attitude or emotion that can affect how a scene begins or unfolds., Use this exercise to explore different possible adjustments for your character during the course of a scene., Scene in a Sentence, No matter how many different actions and topics it involves, and regardless of its complexity, a scene is about one thing., This exercise helps you explore the main event of a scene from different angles that may lead to new story ideas., Stage 2, Refining The Action, Seeing the Scene, A picture is worth a thousand words., Streamline the need for dialogue by exploring new ways to literally show, not tell, your story and create a simple visual storyboard of the scenic action., There and Then, In drama, the term "exposition" refers to anything that is not observable in the here and now., Use this exercise to turn expositional facts into story action that fuels your story instead of stopping it., The Aha!s of the Story, Characters continually acquire new knowledge about themselves, others, and the world at large., Explore three types of character discovery and how these "aha!" moments might influence the dramatic action of a scene., Heating Things Up, One way to heighten conflict is to make confrontation between your characters unavoidable., Explore different conflict techniques, from a binding disagreement to such devices as the locked cage, ticking clock, and vise., The Emotional Storyboard, Character feelings are an integral part of story structure., Map out the emotional arc of each character in a scene, and explore how this emotional life both creates and grows out of the dramatic action., In the Realm of the Senses, Sense experience and sense memory are key ingredients of our participation in your story., Add visceral power to a scene-and trigger new ideas-by doing an in-depth sense study of its setting, characters, and dramatic action., The Voice of the Setting, Whether indoors or out, every setting has its own voice., Explore different ways to use the nonverbal sounds of this voice to help set the scene, create a mood, or tell the story., Thinking in Beats, The beat is the smallest unit of dramatic action., By doing a beat analysis of a scene you want to revise or edit, you can not only pinpoint dramaturgical problems, but also evaluate your current writing process., Stage 3, Refining The Dialogue, Talking and Listening, Dialogue is heightened speech that sounds like everyday conversation but isn't., Here are some general guidelines to help you revise your dialogue so that it accomplishes more with less., Unspeakable Truths, What your characters don't say is just as important-and often more important-than what they do say., Explore the subtext of your characters and how to communicate it without actually stating it., Universal Truths and Lies, A great story imparts not only the specifics of a plot, but also statements-true or false-about the world we all live in