The most pure actions of a stage play are drama and action.You have to work with characters and language.If you want to join the likes of Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Arthur Miller, you need to develop a bold, character-driven story.You will get to experience the thrill of seeing your finished play performed if you have a good vision, good writing, and a little luck.It's always fun to try, whether you're writing a play to be shown on television or just writing for fun.
Step 1: Start with the characters.
There are plays that are character driven.Since it will be a lot of talking between people, your characters need to be believable.The inner tensions between characters can be seen in external ways in great plays.Problems that show up in the characters' behavior are what they need to have.What do you want your character to do?What is keeping your character from doing what they want?What is in their way?Developing a character can be done by thinking of interesting jobs.What is the most difficult job you can imagine?What is a job that you have always been curious about?What kind of person becomes a doctor?How do you get such a job?Don't worry about the physical description of your character.It doesn't tell you anything about a character named Rafe who is 6'4 and has washboard Abs and wears t-shirts occasionally.To tell a physical trait, stick to one notable.Your character may have a scar on their eyebrow from being bitten by a dog, or they may never wear skirts.Something about them is revealed by this.
Step 2: The setting is something to consider.
The setting of the play is where the story takes place.It's important to place your character in a tense situation to create drama.It's a good idea to combine character and setting to figure out what kind of story you'll get from their placement in that setting.Do you want to be a podiatrist in Paris, Texas?What kind of person would become a podiatrist in Paris, Texas?How does one end up there?When developing your setting, be specific."The Modern Day" isn't as interesting as "Dr. Wilson's Family Podiatry, next to the The West Hillsboro Suburban Mall, just south of town, at 3:15 pm on Good Friday."The more specific you are, the easier it will be for you to work with.The setting may introduce other characters.Who works at the desk?Maybe it's a family business.Who has an appointment on Friday?Who is waiting?What are they trying to accomplish?Take into account what would be probable.Prepare ideas for how you would stage this futuristic world if you were making a play based on the future.Make sure you have enough time and money to make the forest come alive if you play in it.It's important to include why the setting is how it is.The forest is a mess after a tornado passed through.
Step 3: Take the inner story and figure it out.
The psychological conflicts happening within the characters are referred to as the "inner" story.It's important for you to have a sense of this as you're writing the play.The characters will be guided by the inner story throughout the plot.The easier the characters are to write, the more concrete the inner story is.They will make their own decisions.Maybe you want to be a brain surgeon, but you don't have the stomach.The med-school version of your character was able to stay up late partying while still passing all their classes, because the podiatry program had the least strenuous schedule.Having never left Paris may be the reason why the podiatrist is unhappy.
Step 4: Match the inner and outer stories.
Good and bad plots look at each other.It wouldn't be interesting to have a play in which your doctor talks about how she'd rather not be a doctor and then kills herself with shoe polish.It is better to place your characters in a dramatic situation that will test them and change them in some way.If it's Good Friday, the retired podiatrists might come for an Easter Dinner.Is your foot doctor a religious person?Will she go to church?Does she have to clean up the house before the weekend starts?Is her father going to check her out again?Will this be the end?What will happen?
Step 5: Understand the limitations of the stage
You're not writing a movie.A play is a series of conversations between people.The focus should be on the tension between the characters, the language, and the development of your characters into believable people.It's not a good medium for car chases and gun fights.Writing a play with impossible-to-stage scenes is a way of exploring the writing itself.If you don't plan on staging the play, treat it as a poem.Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, and Antonin Artaud were the pioneers of experimental avant garde plays that incorporated audience participation and other absurdist elements into their drama.
Step 6: You can read some drama and see some productions.
It's a good idea to get familiar with the world of contemporary theater, just as you wouldn't try to write a novel if you'd never read one.You can check out plays you've read and like to see how they change on stage.David Mamet is one of the most popular and celebrated playwrights.If you're going to write a new play, you need to see new plays.It is important to get familiar with what's going on in the here and now even if you have a good working knowledge and love of Shakespeare.It wouldn't make sense to write plays in the era of Shakespeare.
Step 7: Write a draft.
You'll still surprise yourself even if your plan for "Easter with the Podiatrists" seems like you're on your way to a Tony Award.You may have the greatest idea in the world, but you have to actually write it and allow for surprise to enter into the equation.In the exploratory draft, don't worry about how the play is formatted or written, just let everything get out.Write until you have a beginning, middle, and end to your play.There is a possibility that a new character will change the story.Let it happen.
Step 8: The play should be small.
A play is a slice of a person's life.It can be tempting to jump ten years into the future or have the main character quit her job in the doctor's office and become an actor in New York, but a stage play isn't the best medium for these kinds of shifts in character.Your play might end with a simple decision being made, or a character confronting something they've never confronted before.If the play ends with a character killing themselves or someone else, rethink the ending.
Step 9: Always move forward.
In the early drafts, you'll write a lot of scenes that wander.That's okay.Sometimes you need to have the character spend a long awkward dinner conversation with their brother-in-law to get a new perspective on the drama.Great!It doesn't mean the whole dinner date is important to the play.There are scenes in which a character is alone.A character on stage is looking into a mirror.Don't say too much preamble.Don't wait for the podiatrist's parents to arrive.Give yourself more time to work with it.Don't make it hard on yourself.
Step 10: Find the voices of the characters.
Your characters will use their language.The way they choose to say things is more important than what they say.When the daughter of a podiatrist asks what's wrong.The audience will be told how to interpret the conflict by the answers from the podiatrists.She might have rolled her eyes and sobbed.She threw a stack of papers in the air to make her daughter laugh.We know she's making light of something.If she said nothing, we would look at her character differently.Get back to work.Don't let your characters talk about their troubles.A character shouldn't say, "I'm a shell of a man since my wife left me!"They reveal their internal conflicts.They should be made to hold onto their secrets.You don't want them to explain themselves to the audience.
Step 11: Make a change.
The writer's refrain?"Kill your darlings."If you want to write a realistic and hard-hitting drama, you need to be a harsh critic of your early drafts.Cut scenes that meander, cut characters that are useless, and make the play as tight and as quick as possible.Go back through your drafts and mark any moments with a circle that pause the drama and highlight the moments that move it forward.Everything that's circled should be cut out.If you end up cutting out most of what you wrote, so be it.Things that move the story forward are what you should fill it back in with.
Step 12: Write as many drafts as you can.
There isn't a right number of drafts.Continue until the play feels finished and you are satisfied with the story.If you want to go back to the old version of the draft, save it so you can.Word processor files are small.It's worth it.
Step 13: The plot should be broken into scenes and acts.
A mini-play is made up of several scenes.The play is usually 3-6 Acts.A scene usually has a set of characters.You're moving on to another scene if a new character is introduced or if the character moves elsewhere.It is difficult to distinguish an act.The first act of the podiatrist story might end with the arrival of parents and the main conflict.The second act might include scenes in which the parents argue with the daughter, Easter dinner is cooked, and the church is attended.The daughter might reconcile with the father in Act three.The end.You will be able to think in terms of acts and scenes as you write your initial draft if you become more experienced at writing plays.Don't worry about it in the early going.Getting the drama right is more important than the formatting.
Step 14: Stage directions should be included.
The physical components of the stage should be described in stage directions.This might be very simple or elaborate depending on your story.The play will eventually look like this.If Act One requires a gun on the wall, put it there.The character directions should be included in the dialog.The actors will take their own liberties with the dialog and move about as they see fit, but it helps to have any important physical motions included in the dialogue.A kiss is important to direct, but don't use it too much.The actors will ignore directions if you describe every minute physical movement of a character.
Step 15: Tag each character's dialogue.
Each character's dialog in a play is marked with their name in all capital letters.Playwrights will center the dialog, but it's up to you.You don't need to use distinguishing features, just separate the language by including the character's name every time they speak.
Step 16: Front-matter should be included.
A list of characters, a short description of them, any notes you'd like to include about the set up of the stage or other directing guidelines are all included.