The document provides guidance on key elements of playwriting, including choosing a subject matter that involves people struggling to achieve objectives despite obstacles, developing characters based on real people, using dialogue and scenes to advance the plot through dramatic conflict, providing necessary backstory through dramatized exposition, and revising the work to continually raise the stakes and fuel dramatic tension until an inevitable climax is reached. Playwriting involves crafting a simple premise and setting, but maintaining a level of complexity through plot twists and character development.
2. Why Write a Play?
• One reason to write a play is to
change the world.
• Plays are often well received if the
audience have knowledge of the
subject matter of the play.
3. The Subject
• The subject can be anything.
• It has to be about people who
struggle so they can relate.
• Must set up an objective and an
obstacle in order to create dramatic
conflict.
• The conflict must be pushed to its
furthest believable extreme.
4. The Subject Continued
• The characters must be able to
obtain urgency to pursue and
objective, or their failure should
have resounding psychic and
emotional implications and universal
ramifications.
• Along the way there should be a few
reversals and revelations.
5. The Subject Continued
• ―Through the plot twists, the
dramatic tension builds until the
writer gets to the unpredictable,
climactic ending that, in hindsight,
was inevitable from the start.‖
6. The Premise
• Need to understand what the subject
will be, what he/she will do, and what
he/she will face.
• The objective is to be fraught with
obstacles the character has to
confront and maybe overcome.
7. Theatricality
• The difference with plays is that
change and transformation can occur
right in front of the audience’s eyes
without any tricks or pyrotechnics.
• Writers must write with the story
being a play and not a movie or TV
show because the writing is specific
to its genre.
8. The Process
• The play will often change as it is
written because there may be
choices made that do not work, so
you must be willing to go back and get
it right.
• Once the play is written, finishing
can often be one of the most
difficult parts because some writers
have a hard time brining things to a
close or figuring how it should close.
9. Keep It Simple Stupid
• It is important to keep the play with
an understandable and simple premise
but keep the premise urgent,
present, as well as clear.
• Make sure this does not mean to
dummy something down or make it
too simplistic.
10. Continued
• If the play seems to be taking a
different directions, it does not
mean the writer cannot change the
destination.
• Many writer begin with the end
because if they know where they are
going to end up, then figuring out
where to start and how to get there.
11. Continued
• The basic concepts of dramatic
structure should be used.
• It is best to write the first draft as
quickly as possible in order to get the
information down so that there is at
least a skeleton of the story to work
off of and rework.
12. Setting
• The setting should be clearly
described and kept as simple as
possible so that there is no room for
interpretation.
• The lack of interpretation will make
sure what the writer envisioned as
the setting to be what he/she
wanted.
13. Craft and Structure
• The goal is to absorb and put to use
the dramatic structure so that it
does not give the reader the
impression of being artificially put
into the play.
• This structure will become the basics
of what the writer will place
thoughts, feelings, ideas, and
insights.
14. Craft and Structure
Continued.
• Plays must have universal and
comprehensible information for all
viewers with aspects that come from
life in general.
• There is clearly a beginning, middle,
and end like all stories.
16. The Basic Elements of
Dramatic Writing
• The writers job is to dramatize some
type of conflict that stems from the
character’s desire to act on an
urgent want, need, or desire—
basically the character’s objectives.
• Objectives should be specific and
concrete.
17. The Basic Elements of
Dramatic Writing Cont.
• Basically stated:
Objectives + Obstacles= Conflict
• Conflict is created by interaction
between a character’s dramatic
action and the obstacles to his
objective.
18. The Basic Elements of
Dramatic Writing Cont.
• In order to succeed at play writing,
the individual must be able to
embrace, build, and manipulate
conflict within the drama.
• Dramatic action is not physical
activities onstage.
19. How Not to Dramatize
Conflict
• Do not have characters given
exposition of past events that do not
tie into the objectives or obstacles
they are facing.
• Do not put in characters or scenes
that do not take the dramatic action
forward.
20. How Not to Dramatize
Conflict Continued
• Do not have the characters refer to
offstage characters that do not
relate the scene taking place on
stage at the time.
• The central character needs to act
upon the world around him/her.
21. Character
• Sometimes is it easiest to build
characters off of the individuals that
the writer already knows because
what they sound like and how they
act. This makes them more believable
and the motivation understandable.
• Characters may also be bits and
pieces of different people or a
combination of real and fictional
people.
22. Character Continued
• The individual writing the play must
love the characters he/she creates
or at least be able to put his/herself
in the character’s shoes or it comes
off as just being a vendetta against
the individual. This could make the
character very one-sided and flat.
23. Character Continued
• The characters will preform tasks
and speak words that will further the
plot as well as revealing their
thoughts and feelings.
• They must serve a purpose.
24. Monologue
• The monologue is a combination of
stage directions and the onstage
presence of another character who
does not speak.
• It is when one character speaks for
an extended period of time without
being interrupted.
25. Constructing the Scene
• The friction created when the
dramatic elements of objective and
obstacle collide the is where drama is
created.
• When the character’s goal for
meeting an objective is impeded by
some obstacle in his/her way, the
conflict will result on how he/she
revolves the situation.
26. Constructing a Scene
Continued
• There are three ways to resolve an
obstacle:
– The objective is achieved
– The objective is not achieved
– The objective is rendered irrelevant or
superseded by a new objective.
27. Constructing a Scene
Continued
• Each scene should answer one
dramatic question that leads the
reader into a new question that
raises the stakes for the
character(s).
• A scene has several dramatic beats—
or small dramatic units.
28. Constructing a Scene
Continued
• Every scene must have dramatic
tension—what happens when the
character confronts an obstacle in
pursuit of his/her ultimate objective.
• In order to keep the tension going,
the writer must find a way to raise
the stakes for the character that
stop him/her from achieving the
objective become increasingly urgent.
29. Constructing a Scene
Continued
• In order to increase the urgency, the
writer needs to make the objective
more personal, specific, or necessary
for the character’s well-being.
• There is also a tension of opposites,
which is the conflict between what
the character hopes and fears.
• The tension of opposites should be in
every scene. As hope builds, fear
increases.
30. Dialogue
• Dialogue contains all the basic
elements of scene where the reader
can identify an objective, an
obstacle, and a raising of dramatic
tension.
• There may also be a reversal where
the conflict is caused from the
relationship between two characters
where the relationship shifts at the
end of the scene.
31. Dialogue Continued
• All dialogue must have dramatized
conflict.
• All writers must use dialogue to
develop character, instigate conflict,
convey dramatic action, provide
exposition, and dramatize subtext.
32. Dramatizing Exposition
and Creating Subtext
• Exposition establishes provides the
audience with the vital information
that contextualizes the events that
occurred before the present scene
that may have contained the conflict
the occurs in present time.
33. Dramatizing Exposition and
Creating Subtext Continued
• ―Good exposition elevates the
urgency of a scene’s dramatic
conflict and interacts with the
character’s objective.‖ MFA pg. 259
• Bad exposition prevents the conflict
from being clearly presented and
drains tension from a scene.
34. Dramatizing Exposition and
Creating Subtext Continued
• Exposition can add fuel to the
dramatic conflict, help to move the
story development along, raise the
stakes for the protagonist, and
increase the tension between the
opposite characters.
• Any information that the writer feels
is important should be stated at least
twice.
35. Dramatizing Exposition and
Creating Subtext Continued
• Subtext is the unconscious,
instinctive, and subtle unspoken
objectives that lurk just beneath the
surface of what is clearly stated or
explicit. It is part of our everyday
lives.
• It activates the drama by creating
emotional urgency to both superficial
and tangible events or circumstances.
36. Dramatic Reversals
• ―Reversals increase the urgency of
the dramatic action by turning it in a
new direction.‖ MFA pg. 262
• They are very useful in propelling the
story forward and showing character
development through the dramatic
conflict that arises.
37. Dramatic Reversals
Continued
• They occur when the character
attains his/her objective only to
realize things are completely
opposite what they were thought to
be true.
38. Revision
• Anything that does not fuel the
dramatic conflict or move the story
forward to completion should be cut.
• Every scene should have an objective
and an obstacle.
