Writers burn out. They get tired, get dispirited, distracted or drunk. Writing usually has a long lead-time between the conception of a dramatic idea and its full realisation in a stage production. From opening page to opening night can be…
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An actor friend asked me recently, “What’s the definition of a good book?” I produced a smart answer, then a glib one, then a dumb answer, then a long one, finally ending up with no answer at all. He waited…
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In this article, I will look at what makes for a theatrical language. Previous issues dealt with characterisation, and dramatic structure, which are usually regarded as the two principle ‘problem areas’ of playwriting. If only this were true… The fact…
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The problem with play with is that it’s a very complex area, for which there is no one method or approach. Rather, the path to a rich and coherent work is a series of paths, wrong-turns and interesting by-ways, the…
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This chapter should probably be called an exploration of the Bleeding Obvious, but experience of reading many writers’ work persuades me it’s less obvious than might be assumed. Actors, directors and writers are always talking about the ‘character journey’. Even…
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The beginning of a story. Not as clear-cut as it sounds. The job here is not necessarily to ‘start a story’. First, we usually have to introduce a world—and the humans who populate it. The world that we bring into…
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To help you see the richness that a story can offer, I summarise below an analysis by J.L.Styan, from his book, “The Dramatic Experience”. Styan lists six levels to narrative, and uses the example of King Lear, to illustrate. The…
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The word ‘story’ cannot be defined, at least not simply, for no one definition can encompass the dozens of functions that human society keeps asking its stories to fulfil. It’s what makes the idea of ‘story’ impossible to define precisely….
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In this article I will deal with a very neglected area of dramatic technique: the writer’s voice. This may not seem to be an area of ‘technique’ at all, but the truth is that in the long run it’s one…
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There will be times when you are writing a play, film or radio piece that requires either a narrator or some character who is re-interpreting events from a distance. It may be that a character is narrating the events that…
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